Marvelous Response
by texaswookie
Summary: The Scoobies respond to Glory by reactivating the old Halloween spell to give them the power to meet the Hell Goddess on a closer level of power.
1. A New Plan

Own nothing of the BTVS verse and nothing of the Marvel verse. Joss owns BTVS and Marvel characters belong to Marvel.  
>Another Backburner has life breathed into it.<p>

* * *

><p>In Sunnydale California a young blonde woman only a year out of high school sighed as she turned to looked at her mentor and confident. "Alright Giles we need to think of way that we can stop Glory because we're obviously not managing with the way things are." Buffy said tiredly as they once again sat at the table to plan. She was Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, the mystical warrior who's duty it was to defend the world from monsters demons and anyone else that threatened her home. With this duty she was gifted with enhanced abilities that allowed her to battle with creatures that most people believed to be either myths or stories. A battle she knew that eventually she would fall to and another young girl would be chosen to be the defender of humanity. Along with her friends and allies, she had defended this area known as the Hellmouth from any and all that would try and destroy the world or send it to a hell dimension.<p>

She was currently the guardian and protector to a mystical being known as the Key. The energy being was one of the only thing that could breach the gap between diemensions and had once been guarded by the secret Order of Dagon who were hiding it from a powerful being from another diemension. The Order of Dagon had fallen though and the last thing they had done was to send the Key to a new protector. To insure that the Slayer would protect the Key with everything that she had the monks had invoked several long forgotten magics and turned the Key into a sister. Now that the Order was gone though the being had now turned its eyes towards reclaiming the Key. It had determined the general area even if it could not get very close. The Hell Goddess Glory was determined to find out just where it was that the Key was and to use it to return to her diemension. The two mystical beings had fought many times. While a Slayer was far beyond what a normal human was Glory was even farther than that beyond what the lithe blonde was capable of.

The blonde looked at the broad shouldered elder man who was in his forties. He was Rupert Giles, the Watcher to the Slayer. It had been the duty of the Watcher to always guide the Slayer ever since men had first understood what it was that the Slayer did. Rupert, or Giles as he was affectionately known by the other members of the group. "Unfortunatly, I have yet to discover anything that would be of any help to us." The Watcher admitted to the girl before him. "All of our research has turned up nothing that could damage Glory enough to give us the type of win that we need."

The blonde sighed in discouragment. This was supposed to be a strategy session in which they tried to figure out any kind of weaknesses that the hell goddess might have that they had not noticed before. "Has anyone noticed anything other than the fact that she has really bad taste in clothes, shoes and wears way too much makeup?" She asked as her eyes roamed around the room hopefully. Sitting in a pair of chairs were her magical and technology division in the redheaded Willow Roseburg and blonde Tara McKlay. THe two witches when they combined their power were exceptionally powerful as Tara provided the control while Willow commanded the raw power. THe redhead also was a more than decent hacker. Near the counter a dark haired young man with shaggy hair stood next to his girlfriend. Xander Harris a jack of all trades and ace construction worker didn't look any happier than ex-vengeance demon Anya Jenkins, formerly known as Anyanaka Patron Saint to Scorned Women. The Slayer's eyes drifted to the final member of the group. A black duster hung off the deceptivly thin frame of Spike or William the Bloody, former member to the Scourge of Europe, the Slayer of Slayers. A vampire with a reputation so fearsome that demons were scared of him. He had platinum blonde hair and a ciggarette rested between his lips. The only reason that he was currently a member of the group was because of a chip that prevented him from harming humans. The Slaye's shoulders slumped as she realized none of her friends had any ideas.

"Well unless you want to head over and have a fight at Skanks R Us, I can't really think of anything that we can do to her." Willow told her friend dejectedly.

"And why would you want to get in another fight with her there when you can't even beat her now?" Anya questioned the witch in her usual no nonsense manner.

"Other than knowing where she is, I really can't think of a reason that would be helpful actually." The witch admitted to the others reluctantly as she tried to think of something else. "Could we maybe find a spell to send her away?" She questioned Giles hopefully. Everyone turned to look at the Watcher with renewed interest hoping that the man had found some obscure bit of knowledge that would help them out.

The man took his glasses off and began polishing them. "Unfortunately, that is not a viable option." He admitted to the redhead. "If you will recall, it took nearly all of your power just to teleport her away that one time and she reappeared the next day at the hospital. I don't think that any of us have the power in which to battle something on her level. Even combined I'm not sure that we have the power to confront her, so I don't think the combining spell would work against her either other than give her a single target to focus on. She is simply too powerful for us to confront her directly in our usual style."

"So where can we get some more power?" Xander asked from where he was sitting. "It's not like we can ask someone to stick a bunch of powers into us so we save the world can we?"

Buffy looked at her friend and a memory came back to her. "Why can't we?" She questioned him.

"Huh, okay, and where do these wonderful, mysterious, and amazing powers come from?" Xander asked in confusion, wondering what his friend was getting at.

"Yeah I'm with Droopy here Slayer, how are you going to get someone to just give you the power to take on the hell bitch?" Spike snarked from where he was.

"I'm working on that part." The blonde admitted. "Giles, how good were you in the old days at the Chaos spells that Ethan likes to use?"

"Oh I get it, the whole turn into your costume thing." Xander said in understanding, he then grinned at the thought of the power. "Dibs on Superman!" He added hopefully.

The others nodded their heads in agreement. Out of the entire group only Anya had not been on the hellmouth that night. They remembered how Giles ex-friend and fellow practioner of magic had shown up on Halloween and sold costumes out to the various last minute shoppers. The costumes had been bespelled though to turn the people into their costumes. Buffy had been turned into an upper class lady in waiting from the 18th century, Xander an experinced soldier, and Willow a ghost. If the spell could do that to them then there was no telling what it was that it might do to them now when they could prepare themselves for it.

Giles looked uncomfortable at this as he listened, he had feared that this was what the group that had affectionatly adopted the nickname of the Scooby gang wanted and he wasn't sure that he could perform this spell. "I don't know if I'm the one to do this Buffy. The magics required are fairly powerful and obscure." He explained to her. "It also might require a true worshipper of Janus before the spell could actually be of any true use. As your Watcher I am more closer affiliated with Athena and Artimis than Janus."

"Can you do it," Buffy questioned him sternly, "or do I need to drag Riley back here and get him to tell us where Ethan is being held or what?" This brought them all up short as they recalled that the last time that they had seen Ethan he had used magic to turn Giles into a demon and Buffy had nearly killed him because of the transformation.

"Yeah, and you just know that he would never let you forget that it was thanks to him that the world was actually saved. Xander added to the man, breaking the silence that had reigned on them for the past few moments. "Do you really think that he would be able to pass up the chance to rub it in your face for the rest of your lives?"

The man winced at the thought of his former friend getting that kind of leverage to hold against him. Xander was also right in that he would never get any peace afterwards either. "Technically I think I could do it." Giles admitted to the group somewhat reluctantly. "I managed to take all of his notes on the spell after I managed to disable the spell."

"I thought he just left everything," Anya said, "at least from the way that you have told it."

Giles nodded at this. "Yes, Ethan was in such a hurry to leave town that time, that he performed a runner leaving all of his notes on the spell."

"Could Willow and Tara perform it then?" Xander questioned the man with interest. "I mean if you don't think that you have the jo to go with the mo for this mojo, maybe you could always play the coach piece." He offered to the man helpfully.

"No, unfortunately that wouldn't work either, you see Willow and Tara don't draw on power from the Pagan Gods which is where this ritual is based on. There is also the fact that you want to use this spell a spell that is based in Chaos to create Order. There is a chance that you could lose yourselves within the spell." Giles explained to the group. "Do you understand the chance we'll all be taking in using that particular spell? There is no telling what types of consequences may arise from the use of this spell. Do you really think that Janus will ignore the fact that we used some of his power to create Order without some sort of consequence?"

"For Dawnie I'd be willing to chance it." Buffy returned to him stonily. "If it meant that Dawn survived, I would agree to just about anything."  
>Giles starred at the stubborn slayer for a moment before nodding his head in acceptance of her declaration on her motives.<p>

"Is there a vengeance demon for champions?" Buffy questioned Anya, switching tactis on possible methods or secondary plans. "Maybe they could give us the power that we need to stop this from happening." She added hopefully.

"Sorry, no, there are none for champions or people that do right. Those kinds of wishes too often cause problems for us not to mention they give vengeance demons a bad rap." Anya explained to the group that looked more and more discouraged.

"How do you give vengeance demon a bad rap?" Willow questioned.

"Good means bad Willow." Xander reminded his friend with a knowing and indulgent smile.

"Oh yeah," Willow said with a blush getting a comforting hand squeeze from Tara.

"So, we can't just wish er away or anything like that then?" Spike said from where he was sitting in the corner. "Is that what you're saying to us then love?"

"Yes," the young looking woman returned. "There is no demon that would or probably could help us. I mean D'Hoffryn's probably strong enough to do it and Noitcif'Naf is probably crazy enough to try it I doubt that he would really care enough about us."

Buffy looked towards the Watcher expectantly. "Well Giles, unless you have some sort of other plan this is the only semi decent plan that that we have had in weeks. If you've got something else we'll consider it. We're running out of options though with Angel no longer answering his phone and the Council running back to the land of the tweed to have one last batch of tea and scones before the world is blown through hell.

Giles hesitantly nodded and walked over to a locked filing cabinet and withdrew several old and worn looking papers. The Watcher set the pile of papers on the table he stood over the papers and regarded the youths before him taking his glasses off and cleaning them as he tried to think of what it was that he was going to say to them. "I believe that there is a way of working the spell." He admitted to the group. "You see, Janus is not only a Chaos God. He is also a Gateway God. If we were to basically open the gates of potential or reality, theoretically we should be able to empower ourselves in a similar manner as to Halloween. However, we would not be the ones in control, it would be the personalities that we chose to wear. We would be but observers in our own bodies as the battle played out. No one knows this fact better than Buffy and Xander do." He said nodding towards the pair. "I have a copy of all of their memories of that time."

"True," Xander said, "and can I say freaky? No one knows the dangers and craziness of that spell better than me and Buffster do. There is also no telling what type of mind you're going to get unless you plan on a particular person either. Still it may be out only real chance as well though." He pointed out to the group.

"All too true," Giles said in agreement, "this plan is extremely risky and has a high chance of failure or having unexpected side effects that we may not be able to predict. However, if we are to battle with Glory then we are going to need to do something that will even the odds somewhat in our favor. So unless you all think that after months of being beaten and tossed around Buffy is going to suddenly rise up and grab an enchanted weapon or something and manage to beat Glory down in some perprosperous sudden victory then we need a new plan."

"Yeah," Xander said with a smirk, "we can let Buffy go as Super Girl, I'll go as Superman, Willow can be the Phoenix, Anya can be Wonder Woman, Spike can be Thor, and Tara can be Power Girl. Between all of us we should be able to send Glory packing that way."

"Is that possible Giles?" Willow questioned as she looked at the man.

"Not to that extreme no." Giles said shaking his head to the suggestion. "That won't work at all because your bodies would tear themselves apart from the stress of having that much power residing in them. The spell would likely destroy you if you were to attempt it that way."

"Then what can we do?" Xander questioned the man.

"Simple Xander, we must use costumes that won't have as drastic effect on us. As the only one of us without any real magical power your options would be more limited than say Buffy, Tara, or Willow as they have more mystical energy within their bodies than you do." Giles patientally explained to the young man.

"So it would to be somebody low on power then?" Xander questioned as his eyes grew distant as he tried to consider all of the low powered or non meta powered heroes that he knew of. There was Batman and his entire group, Punisher, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Green Arrow, and Captain America. That was just the most obvious ones off of the top of his head. "I could probably come up with the characters and decent enough costumes." He admitted to the group.

"Well that's one thing that we won't have to worry about then." Giles said nodding his head.

"What about the Dawnster though, I mean she's supposed to be energy incarnate right? Doesn't that mean that she could go as some sort of mega heavy duty hitter?" Xander suggested to the others. "I mean she woun't be expecting for her Key to be able to fight back and what not." He tried to convince the other members of the group. "I mean she's supposed to be Green energy, we could make her a Green Lantern or something like that. It would be perfect that way."

"No," Willow said shaking her head in disagreement, "if she becomes a front liner and if Glory beats us all down then she takes her and we're back where we started. We need someone or something that has a power that will help her get away or something like that. Also if we force all of her energy to the front Glory would know it was her and then there would be the danger of her shooting out energy all over the place."

"Shadowcat," Xander said knowingly, "she's a trained ninja, knows how to untie herself from just about every knot, and she had the ability to make her body into a ghost as well."

"That would work," Buffy said in agreement. "Xander, you and Anya get the costumes and the acessories that you think that we'll need now that you know the power levels that we're dealing with. Giles, Willow, and Tara will get the magical stuff ready for this ceremony. Spike and I will patrol and keep things from getting too far out of hand until we're ready."

"Who's going to pay for these costumes?" Anya questioned with interest.  
>The others looked at her in disbelief. "Here," Giles said quickly handing Xander several bills before the girls could all start their usual arguing. Now was not the time for their petty squabbling.<p>

"Uh huh," Xander said as he accepted the wallet before Anya could snatch it up, "about Captain Peroxide, are we powering him up to?" He asked somewhat nervously as he eyed the vampire with suspicion.

"We need all the help we can get." Buffy returned to him. "Angel isn't even answering the phone right now and my contact info with Riley is dead as well. Unless I want see if there is something in their old base there's no way for us to ask them for help."

"So much for that hope," Xander said grudgingly as he and Anya got up. "Let's give the soulless vampire killer even more power than he has already." He said dejectedly. "If it weren't for the fact that we're facing Glory, I'd probably object to this." He informed her.

Buffy smiled at her friend glad to see that he was still following orders despite his obvious objections. "I trust you to get the job done Xan," she said squeezing his bicep comfortingly.

Xander nodded one more time before walking out he had costumes to prepare.

"Make sure they don't have me underwear on the outside boy." Spike shouted after him. "I still got to have some dignity you know?" The vampire snarked at the boy. Xander didn't even bother to answer the vampire as he left.


	2. New Clothes

Still own nothing of Marvel or BTVS verse.

* * *

><p>When he returned to the Magic Shop a few hours later, Xander was laden with several bags of costumes and accessories. Following behind him was an eager Dawn Summers, the taller and innocent looking little sister of Buffy Summers. She also happened to be the Key in human form. Something that the girl did her best to ignore or forget. The girl had been picked up after school only to be rushed all over town as they picked up various odds and ends. "I'll tell you who's who after everything is prepared." Xander informed them as he handed the bags over to the magically inclined members so that they could do the voo doo that they do.<p>

Dawn frowned as she saw that her sisters friends were all anxious and moving about worriedly. THe girl figured that the being known as Glory must be preparing to make another strike. She knew the truth about who and what she was. She also knew that despite her sister being the Slayer that she was in more trouble than she could possibly guess at when you considered just what it was that was after her. She just wished that there was some way that she could help the others in the fight. They were fighting to insure that she stayed alive, she just wished she could either help them or repay them for what they were doing for her. There had to be something that she could do to help them. Spike had been tortured for her.

Xander smirked as the group gathered around the table while Xander began doling out the costumes as if he was St. Nick and had wonderful new items for each of them instead of a possible way for them to end the threat that they were facing. "Alright Ladies, gentleman, and Spike, I give you the costumes that will hopefully give us an edge against Glory the Nutty." He flashed a grim grin at the group as he pulled a blue body suit that looked like a cross between a bucaneer's outfit and a ballernia costume along with it there was a blue mask and a purple stuffed dragon. "I gave Dawnie the Shadowcat costume, and don't get me started on how much trouble it was to find a stuffed purple dragon." He added with a smile. Shadowcat has computer skills that would give Will's a run for her money along with ninja skills and the ability to phase in and out. That should allow Dawn to get away from anything that was trying to kill or capture her." He assured the group.

Dawn looked at her sister and her friends, but the glare that she was currently recieving from the blonde made her close her mouth for the moment and accept the costume from the man as he shoved the pile towards her. Dawn shot another look at her sister. The blonde so owed her if she had to wear this thing in public. She didn't care if it was Xander that had picked these clothes out, she was still very hesitant to wear the things he had handed her. Buffy had better have an equally embaressing outfit or she was going to call him on this mess. Buffy was so taking her on a real shopping trip filled with nice clothes after this.

Xander appeared oblivious of the silent conversation that the sisters were having while he continued to hand out costumes to the other members of the group. The former mid level Geek and Cretin King was currently in his element, as he began doling out the other costumes. "Anya should have a bit of oomph left over from her witch and demon days. That means she should have enough juice in her for something extra. So I thought this would work." He said, as he pulled a blue body suit out, the shirt had a yellow starburst design decorating it. "You'll be the Dazzler Ahn." He said as he shoved the outfit towards the girl.

"Hmm, I can already see how these clothes would be fun to wear in the foreplay that we do before we have sex." Anya said with an eager smile, causing the other members of the group to try and cover their ears so they wouldn't have to hear exactly what it was that former demon was saying to them.

"Moving right along now." Xander said rather loudly, as he tried to drown the girl out while he dug around in the bags for his next costume. "Willow my bestest bud in the world, with your magic you've got enough juice to have real powers so I got you this he said as he handed over a green and gold costume. "You'll be Siren, the mutant angel with a dangerous voice. I thought that as Siren you might be able to use sonic screams to distract her or at the very least give us some air support."

The witch nodded as she fingered the costume thankful for the outfit that might help them to survive.

"Tara, I got you this costume," Xander said to the blonde witch as he handed over an altered fairy costume, "so that you could be the Wasp. That should give you shrinking and growing powers along with some energy blasts while you're shrunk." He said, as he pushed gossamar like wings and an outfit toward the witch, a brunette wig laid on top of the pile.

"Thank you Xander," Tara said with a smile, "you are a good person to do this."

"Hey its what I do, whether it be getting the drinks or the costumes I am the one that you call to get things done when the world is on the verge of ending." Xander explained, flashing her a grin. He then turned to look at the vampire as he pushed forward a pile of green garments with a yellow bandanna on top. "You don't know how hard it was to pick you a costume Fangless."

"Bite me Droopy." Spike grumbled at the younger male.

"Well its not like you can is it?" Xander returned to him mockingly. "Now, are you going to behave so I can show you what I got you?" He questioned with a smirk.

"Fine try and impress me mate." The vampire grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Spike my boy, I got you the costume of a martial artist who has something called the Iron Fist that should give you the chance to hurt Glory. Iron Fist is actually a rather decent character considering he was the original enemy of Sabertooth before his feud with Wolverine became known." Xander explained to the neutered vampire. That and he also happens to have alittle something called honor so if we're all lucky some of that attitude will actually rub off on you and make you act at least somewhat like you have some of that honor."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever mate." Spike said uninterested in the yammering of the boy as he began to paw through the green ninja uniform before him.

Xander smirked as he turned to face the Slayer. "And finally there's you Buffster," Xander said as he pulled out what looked like a very tiny black bikini, a can of orange and black body paint, a tiger like set of ears and tail, some sort of claws and necklace, and a wig.

Dawn smiled evily as she saw the outfit that her sister was going to be forced to wear, the ears and tail that had been added were just an added bonus. Dawn's smile widened as she saw that her sister's usual look of confidence faded as she saw what it was that she was going to be fighting in. Dawn smiled in triumph as her sister was unable to find a way to easily side step this. This almost made up for her having to wear the costume that she had been given. While it might have seemed interesting in the 1970's or eighties she doubted that it was going to be a good thing to wear in this day and age. The two girls locked eyes again Dawn met her sister's uncertain look with a challenging one of her own. If she was forced to wear her costume then there was no way that Buffy was getting out of wearing hers.

Buffy's shoulders slumped in defeat as the smug look of her sister bore into her. She was also doing her best to ignore the lecherous grin that Spike was shooting at her. The two of them were obviously in their happy place upon seeing the blonde forced into the costume before the group. She idley wondered how and if she was ever going to be able to live this particular incident down. This was as bad as if Faith had decided to use her body as a stripper that time they had switched. "Does it have any actual advantages?" She asked dubiously, as she looked the outfit over. A Playboy Bunny costume covered more than this thing did.

Xander nodded his head dutifully. "As Tigra, you should hopefully be almost as strong as Glory. Tigra can lift about 10 tons, so you should be able to match her blow for blow." He assured her. "You'll also be faster and more agile than her with this in close combat. If she does her superspeed thing then though, no one will be able to touch her." He warned the group. Sure he could have gotten Spike a speedester outfit, but if the vampire ever got the chip out of his head they didn't need him moving faster than any of them could follow.

"And what about for yourself?" Giles asked as he eyed the comic book themed costumes with distaste. "Whatever happened to great literary figures like Sherelock Holmes or Tom Sawyer?"

"I went for Captain America, I'm hoping he can plan an idea for this one and he's a good fighter. He's powers come from a drug, so I should hopefully be okay." Xander said, as he pulled out a plastic shield along with an American Flag themed costume that had a cowel with a giant A and wings on it.

"Very well," Giles said, "it will take a few hours to get this prepared hopefully nothing goes wrong."

"Don't you want to see what I got you though Giles?" Xander questioned as he dug in the sacks one more time for yet another costume.

Giles gave the young man an annoyed and disgusted look. "Unfortunatly Xander, someone has to remain in control of their facilities so that the situation can be explained to these heroes of yours and why we displaced them from their possible posistions in reality to this place that will likely have very little to do with anything that you could possibly propose as a costume."

"Huh, maybe I should have gotten you a Hank McCoy or Reed Richards costume." He mused out loud. "So, I'm guessing you don't want to dress as Dr. Druid then?" Xander asked as he pulled out a large robe, and a head piece that would give him a balding appearance. "I originally thought that Dr. Strange the Sorcerer Supreme, would be a good one to have, but then I remembered all of your worry about power levels and decided to look for a character of a lower level of power."

"Not possible Xander," Giles returned, crossing his arms determindely. "I have to perform the spell and explain the situation to these heroes that you will be dressing as."

"Couldn't we make a video or leave a note to get that done?" Xander asked curiously.

"While that would deal with explaining the situation, it would not deal with the matter of how the spell would be completed." Giles explained to the young man tiredly.

"Oh yeah." Xander said, as he quickly stuffed the robe back into the shopping bag. "Its here if you change your mind though Giles." Xander assured the man, who nodded his head in acceptance of the offer.

"Well now, that that's settled I guess we should go ahead and change then." Buffy said as she looked at the costume uncomfortably. "Xander, you and Spike can change up here we'll change in the back." She declared.

"You sure that you don't need us to help you in there Slayer?" Spike questioned with a smirk, as his eyes roamed over the form of the Slayer with appreciation.

"I'm sure." Buffy said darkly, before she began ushering the girls towards the training room.

"But I like changing in front of Xander." Anya complained. "Depending on the outfit and how I change clothes sometimes determines whether or not we get to have wild and hot sex."

"Not now Anya." Buffy and Willow said in annoyance, as they dragged the former demon into the back room and shut the door behind them.

Xander quickly discarded his jeans, workboots, and work shirt to replace it with blue pants, red boots of some sort, a blue shirt a star in the center and red and white lines incircling the torso, the final pieces were the mask, red gloves, and the flag themed shield that rested in the bag. Xander looked a bit uncomfortable in the outfit but seemed content enough with what he had. Although he personally thought that the eye holes could do with being a bit bigger it would have to do.

Spike removed his own clothes and replaced his usual dark colored clothing with a green gi, yellow slippers, and a yellow mask that he tied to his head. As a final touch he added on a stick on dragon tattoo to his chest. The vampire smirked as he looked Xander over. "Unlike you whelp, I can actually pull off this stupid super hero look." He boasted, as he gave a few flexes of his muscles at the costumed young man.

"Oh geeze that's a funny one." Xander snarked back at him. "To bad you don't have the heart of one. Oops I forgot, its kind of dead."

"Would the two of you try and contain yourselves for the moment?" Giles questioned them, as he went over the spell before him. He was going to use a spell that was nearly identical to Ethan's original spell, but instead of invoking the Chaos aspect of Janus he would be invoking the aspect of Gateways and hope that it was enough to convince the God to grant the group access to the limited powers that they were trying to use. The entire thing could have unexpected results that could blow up in all of their faces in ways that they couldn't even imagine. Every detail had to be figured out to as fine as possible in hopes of not angering the god. If they did it wrong the God might drive them insane, or completly ignore them they had to get it just right.

For the next half hour Giles continued his work. It was only as he was putting in the final touches on the various seals on the floor that the girls waltzed out. The two costumed men each smiled in appreciation as they saw the women come out of the back room. Each of them was wearing tight fitting outfits.

Xander smiled as he looked at the girls as they entered the room. "And I hereby do redeclare my loyalty to the goodness that is spandex." He said firmly as he took in the bounty of flesh before him.

Buffy smiled, as she recalled a memory of him doing the exact opposite of this a long time ago. She shifted uneasily under the body paint that she was wearing though.

"I actually think that I can agree with that mate." Spike returned, as he watched the girls all walking around the room. He smirked as he openly oggoled the young women with no regard. Dawn was the only one that he was currently ignoring.

"Yeah, we do look good don't we?" Willow said as her own eyes followed a blushing Tara around the room.

Giles very pointedly ignored looking at the girls, and instead did his best to focus on finishing up his work. Willow and Tara moved to help the Watcher and the group silently went about the process of setting up the various runes. Instead of Chaos or Wild, they had to put Gateway or Control. They couldn't allow anything to go wrong with a spell like this. Considering the unstable nature of the spell though, they had to be even more careful. The more Giles had studied it, the more amazed that he had been that there had been no blowback or consequnces from the spell. Ethan had been incredibly lucky the spell hadn't torn him apart. "I do believe we're ready." The Watcher said, as he rose to his feet and looked each of the group over with interest. "Are you all ready?" He asked them, as he reached for his glasses and began polishing them so he could avoid looking at the scantily clad girls before him.

"Told you so." Buffy crowed at the others. "I told you he couldn't last 30 seconds after standing up without taking his glasses off and cleaning them." The other girls nodded their heads in acceptance of the victorious blonde. "You owe me a week without complaints Dawn." The Slayer gleefully told her younger sister.

"Thanks a lot Giles, why couldn't you have polished your glasses after we all came through the door." The girl pouted at the Watcher. "I would have won fighting lessons." She whined at the Englishman.

"Sorry, I was a bit more concerned with making sure that you didn't all explode or get lost in the multiverse on accident." Giles returned in a rather clipped tone.

"And I am all for the not getting us blown up or lost through the multiverse." Xander interjected, before the girl could say anything else.

"Alright then, lets get to work mate." Spike returned, as he leaned against the wall.

"Yes let's," Giles said as he turned and faced the bust of Janus. The various members of the group all stood around the room and waited anxiously for the spell to take effect. The Watcher took a deep breath and began chanting the words of the spell. Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!" The Watcher intoned worriedly. The scoobies all wavered to the ground, and then they knew no more.


	3. Heroes Born

As usual I own de nada of either of the sandboxes I'm mixing together.

* * *

><p>Steve Rogers, A.K.A Captain America, stumbled a bit as he felt an intense wave of vertigo sweep through his entire body. Once he righted himself, he turned to look around at where he was. The store appeared to be rather basic from what he could see of it. It appeared to be a small shop with various goods up front, with a large collection of books and a large table in the middle room he could just see the door that led into a back area. A second quick scan around the room showed that he was far from the only person that was currently residing in the room. He recognized some of the figures that were gathered around the table. There was fellow Avengers Tigra and Wasp, there were X-Men Dazzler, Siren, Shadowcat and Shadowcat's companion the dragon Lockheed, and finally the vigilante Iron Fist. The only unknown in the room was a man with his back to them. A rather odd gathering of super beings, but he had seen weirder ones. Not that he was going to complain since he was in an unknown situation and he welcomed all of the help that he could receive at the moment. The only way that he might have preferred this would have been an entire team of Avengers in case something went wrong. He would have preferred to have people he was familiar with working with. The Avengers had worked alongside and against the X-Men several times so he knew most of their capabilities. Shadowcat and her pet were the main unknowns as far as he was concerned. Although he knew that the girl had been trained extensively by Logan. He couldn't help but notice that none of the members of the group would be what was considered a heavy weight of the superhero community. Each of them was considered low or medium powered in comparison to some of the powerhouses like Thor, Phoenix, and Hulk. He wondered if there was a reason for that. If the people that had brought them here thought that would make them easier to deal with then they were going to be in for a surprise though.<p>

"Wasp, Tigra are you alright?" Captain America questioned the two Avengers as he tried to assess the place that they were in. He raised his disc shaped shield up in a defensive position as he began taking charge of the situation that they now found themselves in. It was somewhat sad that he almost considered this business as usual he thought to himself as he searched for any possible threats.

"We're good Cap," Tigra returned as she and Wasp stood at the ready each of them prepared to go into action if they should need to. Knowing the pair as he did he figured that Wasp would try and get in close and distract any threats while Tigra tried to confront them head on or tried to come at them from above. That would leave most threats open for him to either strike with his shield from the front or bounce it off the walls and initiate a rear attack, depending upon the numbers that attacked them that is. Now the question was were there any threats in this room. Would they be tested first or would they have everything explained to them.

"X-Men, how about you?" The Sentinel of Liberty questioned the group of mutant Freedom Fighters.

"We appear to be good Captain." Shadowcat returned getting agreeing nods from her teammates while her dragon was perched on her shoulder ready to take off should he need to.

"Iron Fist, what about you?" Captain America questioned the Kung Fu expert.

"I too am Fine Captain." Iron Fist returned.

"That is good to hear." A well-educated voice with what sounded like an English accent said and the various heroes all turned to see the elder man who was facing a statue of some sort and surrounded by various runic looking drawings slowly climbing up to his feet. The gray haired man appeared to be in his forties or fifties by looking him over. Despite his age there was a power and wariness to him that made all of them wary of the man. "I am glad to see that it worked as we hoped." The man said, as he observed them focusing first on Tigra then allowing his eyes to skim the rest of the group before finally checking Iron Fist over before returning to the group as a whole. The thing was he was not focusing on the chest area but on the faces as if he expected them to know him for some reason. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Rupert Giles; I presume that you all know each other?" He said looking at the group hopefully.

"In our own ways." Captain America confirmed to the man evasively. I am Captain America; my companions are Wasp, Tigra, Iron Fist, Siren, Dazzler, and Shadowcat. Each member nodded or waved at the Englishman as their names were called out by Cap.

"A pleasure to meet each and every one of you. It is also convenient that you all know each other it makes introductions so much faster and allows us to get down to the matter at hand all that much faster." Giles said, as he took a sip of tea from a nearby cup. "May I offer you any type of refreshments? He questioned the group.

"I think we would all prefer to know what is going on instead Mr. Giles." Captain America said warily.

"Yes, but we do thank you for your most generous offer Mr. Giles." Iron Fist returned giving the man a respectful bow.

Mr. Giles seemed somewhat surprised by the actions of the kung Fu master, as he stared at him in shock before he turned away and faced the group as a whole. "Now then, I am sure that you are all wondering just where it is that you are."

"Ye could say that again." Siren said impatiently as she glared at the man.

"Yes indeed," Giles said, as he straightened his glasses. "I'm not sure how to say this exactly, but we have brought you forth from another world or dimension to help us here. Because here in this world you are all nothing more than fictitious comic book characters that the young read for entertainment." He said as he laid down several comic books for the group to see. "Despite your fanciful origins in this world though we have desperate need of the skills and expertise that you possess. So using a spell we managed to place your essences within these forms that you are wearing. It is our hope that you can succeed where we have failed time and again."

"So you are saying that these aren't even our bodies?" Dazzler said in annoyance, as she held her hand up and looked at it in surprise.

"And if these aren't our bodies, then where are ours?" Tigra asked tightly.

"Near as we know they are still in your universe." Giles returned to the suddenly worried looking group. "And before you worry over whether or not the figures forms that you are wearing are now in your bodies then the answer is no as far as we understand the spell. The original owners of the bodies are still in there with you, they just don't have any control of their bodies right now.

"How can ye be sure?" Siryn questioned curiously.

"We have had an unfortunate and unexpected encounter with this spell before, which taught us some of the basics of the spell. The prior experience is why we decided to use it." Giles explained to the heroes. The explanation seemed to calm the supers down somewhat. "With you being in control though, you also brought forth your own abilities and powers to help us in dealing with a situation that we have found ourselves unable to deal with."

"And how would that be?" Wasp questioned. "What exactly are you facing that you didn't feel as if you could deal with it on your own?"

"A Hell goddess," Giles said calmly, "all of our other allies have disappeared while fighting their own battles, and we are the only ones left to fight this thing. We once encountered a spell that placed personalities and abilities upon people through costumes, and we were hoping that it would work in our favor this time. Glory, the hell goddess, is extremely dangerous and is threatening to destroy this reality and all of the others in her path in her quest to return to her home dimension. She is also killing people all over the place as well."

"I see, it seems like we need to help you then as this could be damage multiple realities." Captain America said. "For all we know our reality could be threatened as well. What are we facing?"

"To understand what it is that you will be facing, I think it would be easier if you were to understand some of what we do here in this reality." Giles said as he looked the group over.

"That would be useful." Shadowcat said in agreement with the man.

"What is the situation then Mr. Giles?" Captain America questioned curiously.

"This Earth is far older than most know." Giles said. "Our world did not start out as a paradise as most stories say, but as a demon world. In our world, we have an answer for most of the threats that we deal with in the warrior known simply as the Slayer. She is the one whose duty it is to combat the forces of darkness that are of this world. She has the strength, speed, and power to combat these evils. One of your companions happens to be using the Slayer's body right now." He said nodding towards where Tigra was standing her tail swishing back and forth. "Usually the Slayer stands alone in the fight with the darkness her only ally in her battle is the Watcher's Council a force that is supposed to help and train the Slayer.

"I take it that is your position then?" Dazzler questioned the man with mild curiosity at him.

"Indeed." Giles confirmed for the woman.

"Well he's got more hair than most Watchers then." Wasp joked getting grim smiles from some of the force while Giles gave the group confused looks.

"An extremely powerful being from our dimension known as the Watcher, he observes everything on our world and dimension that he believes to be of significance, but has also has taken a vow of non-interference so he is unable to help us despite there being times when he would like nothing more than to do so. Many are the times that he has gotten in trouble for helping us when it was his duty to do nothing more than to watch. It is indeed a harsh life to always observe but never act." Iron Fist said somewhat sadly.

"I see," Giles said somewhat uncertainly before he resumed the conversation that he had been having earlier. "The current Slayer though has never been much of one for rules though, and has managed to acquire several allies in her battle with evil. Amongst them a pair of witches, a former vengeance demon, a young man, and some extra muscle." He explained while nodding towards the various members of the group. "We are currently in a small town called Sunnydale California, which is currently an interdimisional rift that on occasions opens to various netherworlds. It is referred to as Boca Del Inferno, or simply the Hellmouth."

The heroes all listened in shock and horror as they heard of a world with only a handful of heroes that was besieged by the darkness that came from people's nightmares. The number of heroes on this planet barely made up two teams worth, and they had an entire planet's worth of area to cover. It just all seemed so wrong. "Well, could be worse, it could be the Negative Zone." Tigra said dryly.

"I see that you and Buffy share the same sense of humor." Giles said tiredly. "I had hoped for a break from it to be honest. We also have other allies in LA, but they are currently unresponsive as well."

The various heroes nodded their heads in acceptance. It sounded as if these people had been in a bad situation, and had only done what they had out of desperation. Could any of them really turn their backs on people that so desperately needed their help?

"It sounds as if this is a rather harsh world that you and your comrades live in then Mr. Giles." Iron Fist said appreciatively. "You and your companions should all be commended for all of your work in keeping this world and dimension going."

"You may not have any other heroes, but surely you have some version of S.H.I.E.L.D here?" Wasp suggested, as she looked to the man hopefully. "I mean if there is as much trouble here as you say surely you're not as alone as you've been telling us." The young woman pleaded of the Englishman.  
>Giles looked at her in confusion.<p>

"She means a military response to this sort of thing." Shadowcat informed the man. "She's wondering if there's a sort of military force that you could have called up before pulling us here."

Giles scowled, as he finally understood just what it was that the woman was suggesting to him. "No, I'm sorry, but I refuse to take that sort of chance when the world is at stake. The last time that the military involved themselves in what they believed was help they nearly caused the demon world to erupt onto the entire planet." The man said scornfully. There is no way that I would willingly call the Initiative for something as dangerous and important as this. They would be more likely to mess things, up or try and harness her power for some reason or other."

"Surely it couldn't have been that bad whatever it is that they did." Captain America said, somewhat surprised as he tried to defend the American military system from this man.

"Then you do not think that the giving of drugs to increase the soldiers performance levels up to the point that they become addicted to the drugs, or the fact that dead soldiers and demons were experimented on up to the point of creating a Frankenstein like creature that was part man part machine and part demon was wrong?" Giles questioned in annoyance. "I realize that you call yourself Captain America, but that does not make this world's government that good. If it had not been for the intervention of the Slayer and her companions this world would have had possibly thousands of deaths instead of the few hundred that it did."

"I can believe it." Shadowcat said, getting agreeing nods from the other mutants.

Captain America looked like he wanted to argue, but realized this was hardly the time for such a discussion. "Very well Mr. Giles, it is after all your world." He said stiffly.

"Thank you for being understanding, the Watcher said. "I do hope that your own government is not as flawed as the one here." They all ignored the snorts from the X-Women. "This is what you are facing," Giles explained, as he handed a picture of a striking blonde woman. "This woman is Glory, our hell goddess; she has strength greater than anything we've ever seen, super speed, knowledge of the mystic arts, and the ability to drain the energy from a person's mind to make her stronger. This draining process unfortunately leaves her victims mentally unstable."

"So she not only takes their strength, but it drives them mad as well?" Wasp questioned looking sickened at the thought of someone like that roaming around free.

"Sounds like a worse version of Rogue's abilities." Dazzler noted to the others.

"Or a very similar version if you ask Carol." Wasp said defensively.

"Now is not the time to argue about that sort of thing." Captain America interjected, before this old fight could be rehashed by the two. "We have multiple realities to save, so let's leave Carol and Rogue's problems with Carol and Rogue. The man ordered, before someone said or did something that could cause problems for the group as a whole. "We need to be together for this mission." He reminded them.

Wasp bobbed her head in reluctant agreement, while Dazzler glared but relented and agreed.

Captain America shook his head at the two. The one thing that always put the X-Men and Avengers on edge around each other was their choice to take in the former Mutant Brotherhood member Rogue. He knew Xavier was all about giving mutants a chance, but he had alienated both himself and his team from most of the other heroes by accepting her into his ranks. It was true the girl had more than earned her place amongst the heroes, but there were also those that simply couldn't forget what it was that she had done so long ago either. It had drawn a rather distinctive line between the two teams at times.

"Sounds like you need Thor and not us," Tigra said, returning the meeting to where it needed to go. "Why were we chosen to help you? I mean I think I'm the strongest one here hardly the kind of group you would put together to stop something like this Glory person. If she really is a goddess then maybe you should have gotten another God in order to deal with her."

"Because we needed people that would not destroy the people's whose bodies that you are inhabiting." Giles explained to the group. "If we were to place someone with more power than their form could hold the backlash would likely kill them and perhaps the summoned in some unknown way. Therefore we chose people that could help without destroying anyone."

Captain America nodded that actually made a type of sense. "Very well then Mr. Giles, it sounds like you have yourself a team then. What kind of obstacles are we likely to be facing?"

"Vampires, demons, and whatever other forces Glory managed to piece together." Giles said. "I doubt there will be any witches, but there will be a danger from having to deal with the demons that know magic."

"Yeah, demon magic is hardly something that you want to deal with." Shadowcat said in agreement. "It's pretty dangerous stuff."

"Alright, we need to start planning on how best to combat this Glory then." Captain America said. "Do we know what it is that she wants or needs to open a portal to her reality?"

"Yes, she is after an artifact known as the Key." Giles said hesitantly.

"You asked us to take over for you Mr. Giles, that means that you're going to have to trust us with where the Key is." Wasp informed the man. "Do we need to retrieve it, or is it under safe enough protections for the time being?"

Giles sighed for a moment. "The Key is safe at the moment. It was given human form in the hopes that the Slayer would protect it all the more it was inserted into the life of the Slayer as a sister."

"Are we talking about a wee one or what Mr. Giles?" Siryn questioned curiously.

"A babe? No, the Key is not in the form of a baby." Giles said quickly. "The Key is young Miss Shadowcat actually. We hoped that with her unique ability to become intangible that she might be able to prevent the capture of the Key. Added in with her combat training and her experience in escaping from various people, we were hoping that you could keep her safe."

"So my job is security." Shadowcat said grimly.

"Indeed it is my dear." Giles said in agreement.

"So we need to keep Shadowcat away from this Glory person then. Is there anything else that you can tell us or do that might be of help?" Wasp asked with interest.

"Before we do any of that we need to test ourselves and these bodies." Iron Fist said, stopping any further questions. "Did all of our skills and abilities cross over with us, or are we merely under the false impression that when we made the cross that we retained all of our skills and powers?"

"Iron Fist is right; we need to test ourselves as soon as possible." Captain America told the group. "If there is something off about any of us, I would like to know about it now as opposed to sometime after we start fighting with this Glory person."

"We do have a training room in the back." Giles offered to the group.

"Show us." Iron Fist requested of the Englishman.

The Watcher nodded as he led the group into the back room. There they saw a well-organized combat training place with various balance beams and weapons set up in various places around the room.

"This place will do good to test our more basic abilities." Iron Fist said in agreement. Soon he was going through the steady paces of a kata as he stretched all of his limbs out in an attempt to see if there was anything different about his body and how it reacted. Captain America nodded as he slung his shield onto his back and began doing some shadow boxing in a corner. Shadowcat found a corner to practice her krav maga, Tigra was bouncing around on the balance beam and Wasp, Syren, and Dazzler were going through gymnastic stretches. Giles watched them all with interest making notes of each of the skills and abilities that each of them seemed to have and how they used their skills. Once all of them were stretched out they began sparring against each other. Captain America, Iron Fist, and Shadowcat had more formal training compared to the others. Tigra had a feral combat style that made use of her greater agility and bestial attributes. The others had some skills in hand to hand that put them above most practitioners of fighting, but he doubted that they were anywhere near the level of the other members. He dearly wished that the children had this level of power and control when it came to dealing with the various dark creatures and beings that they faced off with on a regular basis.

"Well, our hand to hand abilities appear to be working, but to really test ourselves we're going to need someplace that we can push ourselves possibly even won't have to worry about collateral damage." Captain America noted to the Watcher. "Is there any place around here that we might be able to try our other more destructive abilities out in?"

"You mean this isn't your complete skill set?" Giles asked somewhat surprised, having thought that was the extent to what they could do.

"Tell ya what, ye find us a warehouse or some other place that we can do some damage and we'll show ye just what it is that we be capable of." Siryn told the Watcher with a smile.

"Yeah, we'll show you what we can really do." Dazzler assured the man with a grateful smile.

"Yes, well I am afraid we are going to have to try and be somewhat discrete since even on the hellmouth a cat girl is not all that common of an occurrence and is bound to attract some attention." Giles informed the group. "While there may not be any one to officially report it, I am sure that Glory's spies will notice if in the place of the Slayer there is a human tiger hybrid. The changes might mean that it would be better off for all of us if we were to wait until nightfall before we tried to move the group."

"Is that all that's stopping us?" Tigra said with amusement as she did something with the gem around her throat, and her decidedly feline like features faded away until what appeared to be a redheaded Buffy appeared before the Watcher. The girl grimaced a bit as she moved around the room. "I so hate going human." The young woman complained to the others. "It just doesn't feel right to be like this."

Giles could almost already hear the various Daphne jokes that Xander would be making now once he regained control of his body. "I suppose we should find you some clothes that will fit." He said as he studiously began cleaning his glasses and ignoring the very scantily clad young girl before him.

"This will do." Tigra said as she scooped up Spike's jacket and shrugged it on over her small frame. She did wrinkle her nose up though as she adjusted it. "This person is a heavy smoker." She complained to the others. "Wearing this also makes my skin crawl." She added in annoyance.

"A shame for a person to do that to themselves." Iron Fist said shaking his head sadly. "To be so willing to destroy one's body without any regard to what a mildly enjoyable and addictive pastime does to their body."

Giles did his best to hold back a smirk as he listened to the masked man give a lecture on the dangers of smoking. The irony of it all seemed to be more than worthwhile; he only wished that he had managed to get a recording of the tirade the man was giving. He had to admit it was rather odd hearing the figure he knew as a vampire not to be speaking with his usual cockney accent. "Very well, I suppose we should go then." He said as he grabbed his keys and led them to the cars that the scoobies normally used. "I presume that you all know how to drive?" He asked the group. "It's either that or we can walk and you can get a better idea of what the town is like."

"Walking would be better." Shadowcat admitted as she took her mask off. "We could get a feel for the place."

"Aye, it would make this whole thing easier if we be able ta see what we be doin in the area." Siryn said agreement. "A bit oh an idea of where we be, and the type of environment might help us." The others nodded and removed their masks, and Giles watched with interest as Iron Fist walked out into the sunlight and had no ill effects. If he had to guess he would say that the spirit of the possession was acting as a spiritual shield that was blocking the dangers that the purity of holy objects and the sun would normally have on the body of the vampire. It was a rather interesting thing, and he wished he had time to study the whole thing. He had no doubt that the entire thing would be a rather interesting case study for those that he knew and were aware of the true nature of the world. Shaking his head from his inner musings the man led the group of hero possessing figures to one of the many abandoned warehouses that were in Sunnydale.

"This will serve our purposes very well." Captain America said, as he saw the high ceiling that the building had. "Alright people, start small and work your way up."

"Starting small." A voice squeaked back at the man and they all chuckled as they saw that the winsome Wasp was currently shrunk and using a pair of bug wings while hovering.

"Astonishing." Giles said, as he examined the small fairy like woman that was hovering at about head height. "A modern day Tinkerbell or fairy." He observed, as he looked her over.

"Something like that." Wasp said flashing the man with a bright grin.

"Wasp, be careful." Captain America ordered we're not sure if your body can handle the stress of your size changing. He reminded the woman.

"Don't worry Cap, whatever this girl is she's more than capable of doing this." Wasp said with a grin as she zipped away. The group watched as she began firing bio blasts around the room from her hands destroying or shattering various items lying around on the floor.

"Simply incredible." Giles said as he watched the young woman flit around as if it was the most natural of things to do.

"Iron Fist, your turn." Shadowcat offered as she leaned against a crate. The man in green nodded as he focused on his hand for a moment and Giles watched as energy seemed to surround the fist and he then slammed the fist into a wall that easily tore through the wall as if it was nothing more than Kleenex. Shadowcat then began slowly walking upward rising into the air as she walked.

"Some sort of flight capabilities?" Giles guessed as he watched the young woman curiously as she seemed to float upward.

"Not quite boyo." Siryn returned to him. "She's actually doin a lil somethin she calls phasin."

"Phasing?" Giles asked with interest.

"Aye, she manipulates her molecules into becoming so light that she can walk on air." The redheaded mutant explained to the Watcher. "She can also make herself like a ghost if she be wantin tah and walk through the very walls themselves."

"That would be a useful skill to have." Giles admitted as he watched the girl begin to go through what appeared to be pirouettes. The purple dragon like creature was flying around her in ever tightening circles. "She is most skilled." He complimented as he watched the girl move in a graceful manner that Dawn could normally never hope to accomplish.

"And now you can see what the rest of us can do." Dazzler said with a grin. "Pick a tune Siryn." She requested of the other mutant.

"As ye say super star." Siryn said as she opened her mouth and began to scream. _"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh!"_

Giles flinched and brought his hands over his head as he watched the redhead sent a blast of pure sound towards a wall and punch a hole through it. The young woman then turned towards Dazzler and screamed again and Giles watched worriedly as the ground was torn up but when it reached the blonde it didn't seem to do anything to her. The screaming stopped and Giles looked the blonde over but saw nothing wrong with her despite having been the center of the attack. Wasn't that somewhat dangerous? He finally asked.

"Not for me," Dazzler returned as she raised her hands and beams of energy leapt out of her hand. "I process sound and turn it into energy." She explained to the stunned man. "I can turn it into something as simple and harmless as a flash of light, or I can fire it into something as tight and intense as a laser. All I need is sound to keep me going." She told them as she waved her hands and a flash of various colored lights seemed to bounce all over the room.

"Then there's me." Tigra said, as she shifted into her furry feline form. She then took a large metal bar and bent it without any strain.

Giles openly gaped at that particular feat the metal was thicker than anything that Buffy could have bent without having to work extremely hard. It was amazing the sheer power that these people had. When you add in the agility, claws, and other animal like abilities the woman was obviously much more powerful than Buffy had ever been or would likely have ever become. "And what of you sir, do you have some sort of special skills or abilities?" A curious Giles asked the apparent leader of the group with undisguised interest. After having watched all of the others perform some sort of near impossible feat that would give them an edge in fighting Glory and her followers he was most eager to see just what it was that this man brought to the fight.

"Just this," Captain America said as he raised his shield and threw it. Giles eyes followed the shield and watched in awe as it seemed to bounce off the floor, ceiling, and walls before landing back in Captain America's hands. "I am the peak of human efficiency." He calmly explained to the Englishman in a rather matter of fact manner.

Giles nodded as his eyes darted from person to person, he was beginning to understand why it was that Xander had chosen the costumes that he had. Individually the characters were extremely powerful but combined then there was no telling just what it was that they were capable of.  
>"Now we need to start planning things." Captain America explained to Giles. "You and I will see if we can devise a plan to deal with this while the rest continue to test their abilities. Between the two of us, hopefully we can come up with a strategy that will allow us to stop this Glory before she does something that could do severe damage."<p>

Giles nodded his head in acceptance as the two of them then began conferring over what they could do against Glory and her forces. Just because they had an added edge into their combat style did not mean that the hell god was going to be easily beaten. If anything, it might mean that she would cut loose with even more power than she did before. They had to be able to plan and prepare for any and all possibilities that might happen when they confronted the hell goddess. The fate of this world and many other depended on their being able to stop her before she tried to destroy this world and all of the others that she was threatening with her mad plans of ripping through the dimensions.


	4. Lay of the Land

Ownership not mine still.

* * *

><p>Several vampires were roaming around the streets enjoying the lull in the way things were in the Sunnydale nightlife. The Slayer and her companions were all so busy these days with trying to deal with the Hell Goddess Glory that they had no time to deal with the vampires and demons that normally roamed the streets. This had given them more time to feed, and do whatever it was that they wanted as long as they kept off of the Slayer's radar she was content to leave them be for the time being. This meant that they had free reign to deal with the fools that had come out into the night and into their world.<p>

A girl that had stayed at the movies late was hurrying home in an effort to beat the harsh bedtime that her parents wished for. The blonde girl with a dark tan froze though as she saw the figures that seemed to appear from around the various corners. "Well, well what do we have here boys?" The lead vampire said.

"Looks like a bit of blonde at around the 16 year mark, always a good age for drink and entertainment." Another of the vampires said with a smirk as he licked his mouth hungrily at the girl.

"Sounds like a plan to me." The lead vampire said, as he reached out to grab the girl his face morphing into his game face of yellow eyes fangs sprouting from his mouth and a wrinkled look around his face. The girl screamed in fear as she saw the demonic visage. A flying object suddenly came spinning out of nowhere and smashing into the face of the vampire before bouncing away into the night they heard it as it bounced off a few other objects before falling silent. The vampire snarled in pain, as he reached up and grabbed his face. "What was that?" He demanded of his companions.

"No idea boss." The other vampire said, as they looked around trying to find what had struck their leader. Vampires could see just fine in the night, and yet they couldn't see what had hit their leader or where it had gone. This actually disturbed them more than they really wanted to admit, as they were usually the hidden killers.

"Go home little girl, I'll handle this." A voice said from up above. The vampires and girl looked up to see what appeared to be a man holding the odd circular item that had struck their leader a moment ago. "This is no place for children. The man stated, as he leaped off the building and landed in a roll near them.

The vampires sniggered a bit as they saw who was facing them. "Are we supposed to be scared that Captain America is facing us, I mean what next Walker?" One of the vampire questioned, as they all went into game face.

"Let's see just how tough you guys are when you're fighting someone that is actually capable of fighting back." Captain America returned, as he got into a combat stance ready to deal with the group. "Should be fun buddy, but if you were going to dress up you should have gone as Blade." The amused vampire stated. "He at least knows how to fight vampires."

The creature lunged forward only for the man to grab his out stretched arm and toss him away and into the side of a tree. While the vampire was still stunned from his hit he then brought his shield down slicing right through the neck. The other vampires watched as their companion's body stiffened for a moment before it fell apart into dust. "I think I have some idea as to just what it is that I'm doing." The hero noted as he looked down at the pile of dust that was blowing away in the California breeze. "Now, which of you wants to be next?"

"Get him." The leader shouted, and the vampires all lunged forward to kill the figure that had almost casually wasted a member of their group.

Captain America calmly met the onrushing group of opponents with calm ease. He ducked and side stepped the first attacks while slamming his shield into the faces of his opponents. Leaving them stunned, or unsure what to do. While he was nowhere near as strong as a vampire, the serum that flowed through him made him able to see what they were doing. In moments the vampires were all lying about the ground, while Captain America stood over them with a frown. "In my world the vampires can actually back up their talk." He noted to the group. "Next time I'll see if I can find some of the older ones and not waste my time on trouble makers like you." He then threw his shield again and the metal disk bounced around the street with Captain America standing in the center. After a moment of it crashing around it landed back on his arms. Captain America walked away not even pausing as the vampires all dusted each of their heads severed from the metal weapon that had danced around them as if it was alive.

All over Sunnydale similar scenes were playing out. The demons that had grown cocky over the Slayer ignoring them would find some target or other and then find themselves under attack by the transformed Scoobies. A pair of Polgara demons that had been hunting had been skewered by their brethren's bone claw. Tigra having easily overpowered them, and some Fyarls that they had been dealing with.

A witch had found herself uselessly blasting away at Iron Fist, but the martial artist had almost casually sidestepped the attacks before beating away on the witch. Once he had disabled the witch he quickly destroyed the spell books and talismans that was used to focus magical power through.

Siryn and Dazzler had entered the Bronze, and in between the dancing that they were doing they had easily disabled the various vampires that liked to use the place as a feeding ground. Siryn's enhanced hearing had allowed her to find the vampires without heartbeats.

In the alleyways some vampires thought that they were fighting a ghost as the figure seemed to be untouchable. Shadowcat and Lockheed were easily disposing of the various vampires that wandered the darkened alleyways looking for some food.

Wasp was in a fight with several malicious sprites. Her stingers giving her a distinct advantage over the mythical beings that were forced to rely on their claws that had yet to get close enough to their targets. The wasp stings were powerful enough to punch holes in the Sprites though.

Street by street the heroes worked through the town disabling or destroying the various street level demons that had begun to take over the town. Giles sat back and watched in awe as the group destroyed everything that they could find. By four o'clock the streets which were usually somewhat bloodstained were barely even wet with blood. While none of the more powerful beings that lived on the hellmouth had been dealt with, the ones that had nearly returned the balance to the hellmouth which the appearance of Glory had disrupted. Another couple of days like this and the group would likely be able to do whatever it is that they wanted because the town's demon population would be so low. The fact that these people had so much power and skill at their fingertips made them all the more impressive and made the watcher wonder what it was that they fought that they were able to so easily deal with the denizens that lived around the hellmouth.

"Well Mr. Giles what do ye think?" Siryn questioned, curiously as the various heroes gathered around the living room in Buffy's house.

"Honestly? Your work was superb." Giles admitted to the group. "Each of you managed to deal with the threat that the various demons represented and managed to test yourselves to prove just what it is that you can do.

"Yes, from what we all managed we all appear to be at one hundred percent or close to it." Captain America said in agreement. "This means that when we do confront Glory, then we should be able to go at her with all of the power that we would normally have. I suggest that you go to bed now and we will all prepare ourselves early in the morning." Giles nodded and bid the group good night as he made his way to his flat.

The group waited several minutes before they began talking again. "So what did you all learn?" Captain America questioned the group. "Is everything that he's told us true, or is he merely trying to manipulate us? Janet why don't you start."

"As far as I can tell. we really are comic book characters in this world Steve." Wasp said from her seat. "I found some typical fan boys, and saw everything that they had been collected and unless they went into a lot of work then there is a major following of us here. I saw statues and actions figures of us standing alongside of Star Wars collectibles. I mean I seriously saw a Wolverine action figure with claws prepared to take on Darth Vader."

"Hmm, I wonder if there is some way we can take stuff back with us." Shadowcat said with interest. "I bet Kurt would get a real charge out of seeing something like that." The others all chuckled as they thought of the reactions that some of the people they knew would have if they knew that they were considered entertainment for the people of this world.

"Kitty what did you find out?" Steve questioned curiously.

"I found a computer and hacked their systems." The mutant said with a shrug. "And can I say disturbingly easy. They don't have any Tony Stark's, Reed Richards, or Doctor Doom level of intelligence people on this world. If I wanted to I could probably hack their entire network before they were even aware of it. Kind of disturbing actually. I found nothing on the public knowledge, or Top Secret Clearance level for the things that should be there. There are no Gamma bombs, no Negative Zones, the closest thing that they have to energy weapons are tazers and the Initiative had some plans for an electrical gun. That's as high as they are right now. Basically I saw what the world would be like if there had never been a meta human to ever exist."

"And our opposite numbers here?" Siryn questioned curiously.

"Nothing," Kitty admitted to the man sourly. "It's as if none of us ever existed here in this plane. There are no Janet Van Dyne's, the Cassidy Clan never had a Sean, Tom, or Teresa in the last 100 years. The only one of us that has something similar to a counter version is me since it seems that the name Kitty Pryde was the inspiration from a person already named that."

"So in this world, we simply never were." Iron Fist said. "That is somewhat humbling. I take it then that there are not even people that use their Chi in fighting?"

"None that are documented." Kitty said with a sigh. The mixed group of heroes had trouble believing that everything that they had experienced had not in some way or other happened in this one world in some way or other. "It's crazy, some of the major world events happened but without any meta human participation. The world wars happened, Black Tuesday, the Oklahoma Bombing, the Building of the pyramids but they didn't trigger the same events as they did in our dimension. They created their own suffering but nowhere near as bad as some of ours. The mutant hacker leaned back into her seat. It's almost enough to make one wonder if we cause more harm than good.

"Perhaps they do not have people like us because it has no need for us." Iron Fist said sagely, as he tried to rationalize things for all of them. "Our world has the Dr. Doom's, Magneto's, Kingpin's, and Red Skull's in it for us to fight. This world only has to deal with supernatural warriors it seems though. Warriors that prefer to keep their war hidden from the rest of the world and keep it to the shadows if they can help it. From what Watcher Giles has been able to tell us it is very likely that the battle between the two sides has been happening for the last several thousand years and the people here are merely the latest in the line of people that have agreed to take up the mantle and fight for their right to survive and live."

"Maybe," Dazzler said doubtfully, "but it's not like this world doesn't have it own threats and dangers. The amount of power it would take to force an imprint of our minds and powers across dimensions is actually kind of incredible. Add in the various supernatural creatures that are out there still kind of hard to wrap our heads around on the fact that there is so much the same yet different in this world." "Yeah, well consider some of the technology that they lack that we have all the time then." Tigra returned to her.

"Yeah, they don't have to worry about giant robots trying to kill them for simply trying to do the right thing do they?" The former singer questioned the other woman sarcastically.

Wasp paused at that. "Alright, you have me on that one." The Avenger admitted to the other woman. "I've lost count of the number and types of giant robots that we've run up against that would have loved to do nothing more than to use us for target practice.."

"Tigra what did you learn?" Captain America asked with interest.

"I checked the non-human hangouts." Tigra admitted to the man. "None of them knew what to make of me, but I was able to learn a bit about things here. The demons seem to agree with Mr. Giles though. There is something big going on, and it's about to come to a head as well. They figure that there is going to be some big battle soon and the Slayer will either win and kill whatever is trying to end the world, win and die in some sort of heroic battle, or die while fighting. There are a lot of them hoping she dies a heroic death while stopping this from happening. The odds are against her if the betting pool that they've set up is anything to go by."

"Betting pool?" Cap asked somewhat surprised.

"Yeah, it was how I was able to learn so much about this Slayer girl." Tigra explained to the others. "I also think that this group is just insecure and could probably win even if they were on their own." She added in. "They probably had their confidence shot in some way though. It would take them longer, but I'm sure that they could somehow pull it off. From the stories I've heard about the Slayer she could probably give Cap here a bit of a problem. She's got a bit of a rebel side and doesn't like to play by the traditional rules either. The number of fights that she's been in with only a support team for the most part is amazing. I'm honestly not sure how it is that she's even alive."  
>Captain America nodded at this. Tigra was an experienced Avenger, cop, and vigilante, if the woman was impressed then there was likely more than enough reason for her to be so.<p>

"Yeah, it seems that if you're not the Slayer though then they're all so shocked when you fight back." Siryn noted. "How many times did we get the whole who do you think you are the Slayer line?" She asked Dazzler.

"More times than I would have thought." Dazzler returned. "It's kind of weird to, think that there's really only one hero for pretty much the entire planet with a handful of others that do their own thing. I mean yeah we heard about it but I think that they may have been telling us the truth rather than just trying to increase her reputation." The others all nodded their heads in agreement having dealt with a similar situation throughout the small town.

"Iron Fist what did you learn?" Captain America questioned slightly amused by the the other heroes complaints since he had to deal with those types of questions all the time.

The yellow masked man shook his head at this. "It was disturbing to say the least. Some of them fought with a feral style similar to Sabertooth's, while others had a mixture of various martial arts disciplines that was then turned into a rather unique fighting style that many of them had learned. The fighting style is hard to keep up with when you consider all of the powers that a vampire has but it is doable. It relies on the physical enhancements that vampires possess."

"Did you notice any obvious weaknesses that we could use?" The Avenger questioned with interest.

"Yes," Iron Fist said with a nod, "the single mindedness that they usually focus on a target and their belief that nothing is capable of fighting them. It makes taking them by surprise somewhat easy because they are so surprised."

Captain America nodded his head at that bit of information. "Well I infiltrated the police station, and learned what the files say on each and every member of the group that we are currently possessing. He said, as he placed several files that had kept hidden in his shirt out. "There are the public files which have all of the basics, along with suspected information about them. Then there were some secret files that tells another story entirely. It seems that some of the people are in the know and have been keeping track of things. One report talked about them beating an elder demon even."

"As in Mephisto or Ghost Rider, Elder Demon or something else?" Iron Fist asked curiously.

"Not sure really," Captain America admitted, "but it sounds like something that would normally have taken an entire team from our world to beat. The creature was simply that powerful. Somehow, they found its weakness to flames and managed to add that in with the explosives that allowed them to blow up the high school along with the demon.

"They sound like my kind of people." Shadowcat said with a grin, while she scratched the back of Lockheed's head. The purple dragon like creature purred in content as its mistress rubbed its head affectionately. "I mean it's usually the best way to tell where the X-Men have been by following the trail of damage and destruction that has been done."

"To manage something like that is truly impressive." Captain America said in agreement. "I truly believe that these people have been on the level with us about this Glory being and her plans for this dimension and all of the dimensions that she would have to travel across to get to her own. I'm sure that there are things that they haven't told us but I think that they're just trying to be careful just like we would be if we were in the same situation as they found themselves in."

"Then we are in agreement." Iron Fist noted to the other heroes. "Despite the rather odd, and somewhat forced method that we were brought to this world. That we are the best ones for the duty of dealing with the threat that Glory represents to the multiverse." The other heroes all nodded their heads in agreement with the Kung Fu Master's declaration.

"Tomorrow we hunt then." Tigra said with a predatory like grin, while flashing her razor sharp teeth at the others. Her instincts primed and ready for the coming fight that was coming the next day.

"Aye," Siryn said while the others all nodded their heads in agreement with the statement. The others all nodded as they then headed off to find beds that would hold them all in the mid sized house.


	5. Glory VS Marvel

Well we're back with yet another chapter of things that I own a grand total of nothing of. For those that missed the bulletin Marvel comics owns the comic book characters while Joss owns the BTVS ones.

* * *

><p>The next day around mid-morning Giles walked in to see the group of heroes studying various things like maps of Sunnydale and the various slaying weapons that Buffy kept around the house in case of emergency or an attack on the house. They were also the result of a weary slayer not wanting to return the weapons to the Magic Shop after a late night of patrolling or battling the forces of darkness. The Englishman had lost count of the number of times since he had known Buffy that they had been forced to come by and collect all the weapons that she had forgotten to bring back to him because she was more interested in her bed. When Joyce had not been in the know it had made it particularly difficult managing to get them all back. Of course lately it had been more of a worry that Dawn would do something foolish or impulsive and somehow slice some part of her body off. He still remembered the angry tirade Joyce had given both him and Buffy when Dawn had decided to alter her hair with one of Buffy's daggers. Not something that he liked to consider since Joyce had made him sit with both girls and give a lecture on proper weapon safety.<p>

As the Watcher looked over the group that was normally what he considered his children he frowned as he saw them. The spell appeared to be having some rather odd side effects on the group. While beforehand, it had been rather obvious that each member of the group was still physically their real selves even if they were acting somewhat different. The group before him though appeared to be going through some sort of unexpected metamorphosis. Xander appeared to be broader in the chest, and his dark hair was streaked with strands of blonde. As he looked around, he noticed that the others were also showing signs of the change. Buffy's normally hazel eyes were a deeper and brighter shade of green, Willow's hair appeared to have returned to the bright shade it had been when he had first known her. The others had minor physical changes as well, but they weren't that noticeable yet. The Watcher had no doubt that the longer the spell went the more obvious and many the changes would be to him. For all he knew, the personalities could completely take over the bodies of the original hosts and that was not even telling what might happen to the original personalities.

"Mr. Giles," Captain America said as he met the Englishman. "We are trying to get an idea as to where it is that Glory might be hiding out at."

"Yes, of course, very good idea that." Giles stammered as he focused on the mission for the moment. "The only true clue that we have as to the location of where she might be hiding is from following the path of a tracking demon that Buffy caught and killed. She chased the demon from the Magic Box to the park. The demon moved in a fairly straight line though so it's likely that it was going to try and report to Glory." He theorized, as he stood over the map of Sunnydale and began tracing the path that the serpentine tracking demon had used. "That means that we should likely be checking this side of town for wherever it is that she has hidden herself in."

The heroes nodded as they examined the map and did their best to recall what they could of this side of town. "It might be easier than we think." Tigra said as she examined the path that Giles had traced with his hand. "The prey was moving in this direction, so we should just follow what was in its path." Saying this, she took a marker and drew a cone on the map. "This is the most obvious area that Glory is in if the creature was heading straight for its master like you believe it was." The feline like woman noted to the Watcher.

"It makes sense." Giles said in agreement unable to believe that they had missed something so obvious and basic. Buffy and Xander were usually great at figuring out things like this or coming up with wild plans that would have allowed them to see this. He ignored his embarrassment and moved onward with the planning though. "Glory has shown a preference for the finer things in this world, and the higher priced hotels and more opulent residences are also found in this general area." He noted as he pointed to the area that they would likely find the hell goddess in.

"Sounds like the sort of place that we're looking for then. There is the hotel, then there's some mansions a little farther on and some penthouse apartments." Wasp said, as she had helped with scouting that area out.

"Good," Captain America said before he turned to addresssome of the other heroes. "Siryn, Dazzler, Iron Fist, I want you to start searching the area and see if you can find anyone or anything that might lead us to this Glory. The rest of us will work here and gather information on the surrounding area in the hopes that we can find something that might help us track Glory down. Shadowcat will try and link with various computers and cameras here, while Tigra will stick to questioning the demons about Glory and her followers." The group nodded and broke apart as they began to work on the search for the hell goddess and her minions.

Giles spent the next three days watching helplessly as the spell seemed to take more and more effect on his children. Xander's hair was nearly completely streaked with blonde hairs and Dawn's eyes which use to be a pale blue were now a dark brown. Little things like that had the Watcher more concerned than he would like to admit for the young group. They really had no idea as to what it was that the spell would have on them if used for the long term. Beforehand Glory had been attacking them nearly every other day now though the hell goddess had gone silent and he was afraid that her disappearance was merely stressing the spell even more than it should need be. He hadn't studied what prolonged exposure to the spell might actually do to a person, and now he was almost afraid to know. He had been researching it though when the others were not needing him to do anything. The spell and any variation of it had never been used for long periods of time. Anyone that had done it had not made any sort of record that he could find. The Watcher was stuck trying to gauge the potential problems this could mean for them on his own. The various theories that he had for the potentials disasters were not comforting to say the least. He only hoped that they could find Glory before it became too late for the group and they became lost within the confines of their own minds.

* * *

><p>The heroes gathered together, and watched silently from the rooftops as Giles was being tailed by the demonic monks that worshipped Glory with same fervor as some of the religious zealots that they had dealt with on their own world. This was merely their latest attempt in trying to draw Glory out from whatever place it was that she was hiding in. the blonde powerhouse was busy doing something else it seemed and was ignoring them and what they were trying to do. The small hobbit like beings, were horrible at tailing someone as they seemed to stand out in the small town America community. Then again, there were other people on the streets that didn't appear to be exactly what they seemed and the regular people's eyes just seemed to pass over them as if they were used to seeing something strange or odd.<p>

"Cap I know this is California and all, but isn't this a bit severe on the weird scale?" Wasp asked curiously, as she watched with the others. "I mean that guy there has horns on his head." She said, nodding toward a thirty year old looking man with a hoodie on. "How can these people just so casually ignore it all?" She asked in disbelief at the willful ignorance that the people of this town were showing. "Hellmouth or not you'd think that there would be some sort of reaction to something like that." She finished off.

"I've seen willful ignorance like this before Jan, and I'll see it again." Captain America returned to her. "Our part is not to judge, but to help those that need it."

"It wouldn't be too bad if there was more of that type of ignorance in our world." Kitty shot back at Wasp. "Can you imagine how many mutants might have been saved if the people merely allowed them to live their own lives free of judgment?"

"And how bad would the entire situation at Genosha have gotten if we turned a blind eye?" Tigra asked curiously.

"Considering the other heroes didn't involve themselves in that situation until after the daughter of one of their own had been taken do you really want to go there?" Dazzler asked the feline woman curiously. Tigra glared back at her in response.

"Maybe we have turned a blind eye." Captain America admitted to the mutants. "But right now we need to stop this Glory person before they manage to destroy this world and the ones near it."

"Right," the group said.

"Alright, Wasp, Tigra, I want you to be prepared to tail the monks I want to know if this Glory person is really the threat that Mr. Giles has portrayed her as being. I don't doubt that the woman is powerful, but I want to know if there is a reason for them hunting or being hunted by this woman." Shadowcat get in there and get Mr. Giles out of there, the rest of us will stay up here in case something goes wrong." Cap said as he gave out the orders. Everyone nodded Shadowcat sunk through the roof to intercept the Watcher so that he could make a quick getaway.

The group waited as the man was retrieved and the flustered monks retreated to find their mistress. They wouldn't be surprised if Tigra had managed to already get the creature's scents as well. The feline like woman nodded her head at the group who took off to head back to the base. They would let the others tail the group while they prepared to deal with Glory as a group.

* * *

><p>Giles looked up at the group as they all assembled in the Magic Box Tigra and Wasp had also managed to return by now. He rose to his feet and gestured to Captain America who had taken command of the group. Once they were off to the side Giles began explaining his discomfort to the man. "Captain, the spell that we used was not meant to be used for the long term as we have been using it. No doubt you have noticed some of the physical changes that your bodies have been going through."<p>

"Kind of hard not to." Captain America returned solemnly as he turned to look at himself in the mirror.

"Yes right, of course." A flustered Giles said. "As near as I can tell, it is the spell feeding more and more of your essence into the forms that you are wearing."

"I see." The Avenger said with interest as he listened to the Watcher. "Is there anything we should worry about ?"

"I honestly don't know." The Watcher admitted to the man. "The fact is the spell that we used to bring you all here was never truly designed for long term use. There is no telling the effect that it will have on the bodies that you are possessing or on you own actual forms. There is also the fact that the last time that this spell was used Xander was able to call upon military information for about two years without trouble before it seemed to subside within his brain. A remarkable feet even more remarkable when you consider that the spell had only been active on him for a couple of hours. I just worry what the prolonged exposure of you and your individual skills and talents will have on them after so much time. There is truly no way to tell what kind of reaction there might be." The Watcher reached for his glasses and began cleaning them while wondering what sort of response the man would give him and what he would have to do if he proved resistant or unconcerned about his worries.

Captain America nodded his head in agreement. "I can see your point Mr. Giles, and I happen to agree with you. If we do not manage to find this Glory before the end of the day I would recommend our terminating the spell if for nothing else it would rest your friends, as there is no telling what the side effects the spell will have had on them. It would also allow us to talk to some of the people that we know that deal in magic and see if they have any idea what the exposure might do to the youngsters that we're inhabiting. I'm sure that Dr. Strange would be most interested in hearing about what it is that is happening to us and what the effects might be from a purely scholarly interest. He might even be able to travel here to examine your people to make sure that there is no kind of lasting damage to any of them either."

"Thank you for being understanding about my concerns Captain." Giles said with relief, he had not relished the idea of trying to force these heroes to release the others even if he did know how to force the expulsion of the personalities he would much rather be on friendly terms with beings with as much power and ability as these heroes had. He doubted that the combined power and abilities of the Scoobies and Angel Investigations could have done more than slowed these beings down if they so wished to remain on this plane. "And I do hope after this mess is over that we can talk with this Dr. Strange friend of yours." The two men then returned to the table where they continued to work on strategy now that the Watcher's concerns had been dealt with.

"There is a small fair or something similar on the campus grounds." Captain America said as he leaned over a map and circled a small area. "According to Tigra, the demonic monks are all gathering in this area. To me that screams of a meet of some sort. Perhaps this Glory person has decided that she's hungry again and decided to try and make someone disappear in the crowd. I don't know, but it will be the best chance we have to catch her and save lives."

"Then ah guess we'd best be going then." Siryn noted.

The group all nodded as they head out to see if they could find Glory before she managed to strike out against the people here. They didn't want to chance there being anyone that was hurt or killed because they weren't ready for the attack. Once they got to the grounds they began wandering around looking for anyone that might be a member of Glory's troops or for the Hell Goddess herself.

Dazzler and Wasp were sitting on a bench after having spent the past few hours searching to gather their strength back up. "It makes you appreciate people like Spiderman and Daredevil all the more when you consider that they have to hunt down their opponents all the time." Wasp said tiredly, as her eyes scanned the crowded area. "I mean this is only a small town, imagine what it must be like to have to search to the level that they do at times."

"True, Dazzler said in agreement, "we sometimes forget that the people we usually fight aren't so much into the dark alley style of fighting but are more of the flashy style of fighters. I would so love it if Wolverine or Gambit were here right now. Those two could probably find the person that they need for this sort of job."

"Good thing we have Tigra who can track people at least then. I don't even want to consider how difficult this would be if we didn't have anyone with that sort of skill." The Avenger said. "Oh well, I guess it's back to work then eh?" Wasp said tiredly.

"You two idiots have no idea." A voice said from behind them the two heroines turned to see the woman that they had been looking for moving to sit beside them on the park bench. "I mean you two think that because your friends with the Slayer that it'll protect you?" Glory questioned them idly, as she observed them. "Oh, this is nice. Just hangin' out, just us girls. You like that sort of thing, don't you?" The hell goddess questioned as shereached over and grasped the hand of Wasp in a vice like grip and began to squeeze.

"I think that you better let her go before we decide to do something." Dazzler said as she began moving her hand into position. The fair was giving her plenty of ambient sound to convert into energy at the moment.

"You really think that you can threaten me?" Glory asked her mockingly. "Hello, Goddess here." She said flippantly. "My minions have been doing some research and they found out that the two of you are relatively new to the Slayer and her flunkies. They tell me that there's even a chance that one of you might be my Key in its human form. So I had them learn what I could about each of you. Turns out this one here is a former demon meaning that it's pretty unlikely that she's my Key." Glory said nodding toward Dazzler. She then looked Wasp over with hungry interest. "Then there's you though, you're even newer to the group than she is and your completely human. The only thing that you really have going for you is that you're a witch." Saying this Glory began adding pressure to the hand she held. "Finally found you Key," the woman sing-songed, "and there's no one around to help you either. None of the people here would be able to do anything to help you. Besides you know if they interfered I would just have to kill them maybe even feast on their brains somewhat as well." She speculated to herself.

Wasp swallowed nervously, she had faced off with some of the most dangerous and terrifying beings from her dimension and the surrounding ones. She had even fought with and against various beings that were God's or the equivalent, yet none of them had ever had the look of madness that this being before her had. Her eyes had a madness to them that made her think of some of the worst beings that she had ever fought. Even Loki for all of his faults had an intelligence to him. This woman was pure primal rage though that was just barely being restrained. "Sorry, but you got the wrong girl." Wasp said as she shrunk down before any lasting damage was done to her hand.

"What?" A surprised Glory said as she watched the Wasp zip away from her. "You've never been able to do that before." She complained as she tried to track the flying woman.

"The rules have changed you're godliness." Dazzler said snidely as she leveled both hands at Glory and fired an energy blast at Glory. The force of the blast lifted Glory up off the bench and tossed her away. When Dazzler stopped firing she saw that despite having been slammed into a nearby wall that the woman barely even looked winded from her blast. In fact she was fairly certain that the spot where she had struck Glory and burned her dress was the most heavily damaged area. The woman then seemed to emphasize her lack of injury by easily climbing to her feet. "Oh crap." The mutant singer complained as she saw the woman really was uninjured from her intense attack. 'This was going to get rough.' The mutant thought

"You really think a little light show like that is going to stop someone as amazing as me?" Glory said with a dangerous grin on her face. "Or maybe you were hoping one of these people were going to snap out of their blindness and actually do something that would help you?" She questioned, waving her arms towards the now fleeing people that had been at the fair.

"Actually, we were kind of hoping that they would do something like that. It gives us the room to fight without worrying about anyone getting in the way." Wasp said as she began making a strafing run against the woman.

Glory swung wildly trying to hit the tiny woman, but she was simply too small and nimble for her to connect to and she spent her time blindly trying to hit a target that was way too agile. The hell goddess didn't have to worry about the energy attacks despite their power against her they were nothing more than minor annoyances.

"Don't any of you guys get it yet? No matter what you do none of you can stop me." Glory growled at the pair as she swung again, missed and her fist lashed through the corner of a building. She was cut off from saying anything else as a brightly colored round disc slammed into her face and bounced off.

"We may not be able to handle you alone." Captain America said as his outstretched hand caught the shield. "Together we just might stand a chance though." Iron Fist, Shadowcat go." The two martial artists's dropped from the building and landed a kick that staggered the woman before moving out of the way. "Siryn now." Cap ordered as the redhead appeared behind the hellgod and began screaming the scream lifted Glory up and over slamming her into a thick tree. The woman actually broke the tree because of the force that she hit it.

While she was staggering back to her feet Glory looked up in time to see Tigra falling to the ground from the roof and running her claws alongside the back of her dress. "Slayer?" She said in surprise, "is that you Slayer. What happened to you?" She asked as she ducked another swing from the clawed figure before it leaped away. The Hellgod turned to see that she was now up against people that were all ready to fight her. This was not something she was used to. She was used to dealing with the Slayer one on one while the others cowered in fear from her. These pathetic creatures though had her surrounded and were preparing to fight her. The fact that they were working together made it even harder. The insane Goddess kept twisting her head from side to side as she tried to figure out where the next attack might come from. There were simply too many of them for her mind to understand how to fight. She then focused on the transformed Slayer, despite everything the girl still appeared to be the biggest threat of the group if the fangs and claws that the girl was sporting was any sort of indication for her. Then again, the others had launched various other attacks at her. "So what did you idiots do to yourselves?" She questioned them. "There's more to this than you suddenly getting the guts to do something. I can smell the magic that's all over all of you." She added as she examined them looking for some sort of hint as to just what it was that they had done to themselves.  
>"If that's the case, then you should know that the usual folks ain't in the driver seat." Tigra said with a grin, as she flashed her fangs at the woman before her.<p>

"So a possession spell of some sort?" Glory said with interest, as she examined the group of figures that surrounded her. "It figures that you guys would have to resort to some sort of trick like that. There's no other way you could even begin to challenge my greatness."

"We understand that you're not adverse to using magic yourself, so it seems like your something of a hypocrite." Wasp said, as she returned to human size. "Are you ready to stop this craziness now, or are you going to force us to knock you down a few pegs?"

"Ah, there you are my dear, sweet little Key, I had wondered just where it is that you had disappeared to." Glory said, now ignoring the others as she focused on the witch turned superhero. "I thought I had lost you in all of the trouble makers getting in my way. Now be a good little Key and let's get going. I want everything to be just right for the time I need to bleed you out and get back home to teach my siblings a lesson as to why you don't mess with me." She ordered, as if expecting the young woman to actually do as she was told.

"Sorry, you got the wrong person, I'm not your Key gal." Wasp returned to the woman with a smirk. "If you'd like to hang around and let us beat on you though you're more than welcome to stay though." She offered to Glory.

"Nice try honey, but if you think that you guys are going to get a bunch of free shots like that again then your even dumber than you look and considering that outfit that's saying something." Glory returned to her. "Now let's get going."

"Did she just insult Janet Van Dyne, the Queen of Fashion on her dress sense?" Dazzler said with a smirk as she watched the small woman narrow her eyes at the hell goddess dangerously. "I mean Janet there changes her look more often than George Lucas alters his movies."

"Some people just lack knowledge of good style." Wasp said knowingly. "And looking at you, I can say that with a certainty. I mean seriously, a self-done perm job and the red dress doesn't do anything for your figure." The woman said as she then began listing the various things wrong with everything that the hell-god was wearing starting with the cut of the dress she was wearing and the type of makeup she used.

"Man, and I thought Spiderman had a sharp tongue." Shadowcat joked as she watched the older woman verbally tear the hell goddess apart.

Glory glared at the heroine. "That does it, Key or not I think you need to learn some respect." She snarled at the young woman.

"Let's do it then." Captain America said, as he readied his shield and threw the weapon.  
>Glory smirked as she sidestepped the attack. "That's not going to catch me again buddy, last time you got lucky and caught me unaware." She was unable to complete her monologue as the shield came back and swept her feet out from under her.<p>

The spinning disc then landed into the hand of the man. "You were saying?" Captain America questioned, as he stood over the fallen hellgoddess.

"That's it." Glory said as she climbed back to her feet and rushed at the flag garbed man. She took a wild swing and Captain America brought his shield up in defense. There was a loud clanging sound as Captain America was sent skidding away. "What, that should have sent you through a wall or shattered your piece of tin." Glory complained, as she stared at where Captain America was rising to his feet looking none the worse for wear. In fact the shield wasn't even damaged where she had struck it despite having hit it hard enough to destroy rock.

"Avengers Assemble!" Captain America commanded, as he charged at the woman. The heroes all nodded as they moved into action. Siryn let loose with a focused scream at the woman that was making her balance impossible. Dazzler and Wasp were keeping their distance with their energy attacks while Captain America, Tigra, Shadowcat, and Iron Fist were moving back and forth striking at the hell god in an attempt to keep her distracted.

"Enough." Glory growled, as she dug her hands into the street and drew a large chunk of pavement out she then tossed it at Dazzler and Siryn.

"We're losing fighters fast Cap." Shadowcat noted to the Avenger as she watched the two X-Women trying to pull themselves out of the rubble that the hell god had thrown at them. "Lockheed distract her." The mutant ordered to her purple dragon whom nodded its head in acceptance and began making strafing runs against the woman.

"I know, but we have to keep trying." The man said. "Let's see what happens if we try and swarm her. Captain America suggested. The others nodded as they all moved in. While Glory was distracted by Lockheed, Tigra came up behind her and pinned her arms to her sides while Captain America, Shadowcat, and Iron Fist did their best to hold onto other parts of the woman. "Whatever you do, don't let her go." Captain America ordered. "We need to stop her here and now before she causes anymore problems."

"You think that you guys can hold me?" Glory asked, sounding insulted at the idea that the group thought that they could restrain her even with the upgrades that they had received. "What will it take to make your primitive minds realize that there is nothing that you can do to keep me here? As soon as I get my Key and the time is right I'm going to get out of here and leave this miserable world behind."  
>"Think of the loss of life that will happen if you were to do that." Tigra said to her trying to reason with the woman. "You do what you're suggesting, and this world and who knows how many others could be destroyed because of your actions. All of those lives will be lost for no reason at all."<p>

"I don't care about this little cesspool or the filth that live in it." Glory returned, as she shrugged out of the grips of the heroes. "I just want to get back to where I belong. I mean do have any idea what it's like to know what you truly are and yet the pain of what you've lost has made you into something that your not?"

"Cap I can't be sure, but I think that she's saying that being in this reality is part of what drove her to this level of madness." Iron Fist said as he eyed the woman with a frown. "Her Chi is all disrupted, it is trying to reach out but there is nothing for it to latch onto. Her entire chi system is warped due to being where she doesn't belong and the strain on both her mind and body are the reason she has become like this."

"That may be Iron Fist, but we can't allow her to rip the realities apart just to ease her suffering either." Tigra said as she lunged forward again. The others all watched as Tigra continued fighting the mad goddess.

"Cap what's up with her? I'm not sure I've ever seen her so determined to stop someone." Wasp asked, as they watched the razor sharp claws leave near invisible white marks on Glory's skin.

"I'm not sure, but if I were to guess I would say that she's being influenced by the Slayer." Captain America returned to his teammate." Even with Tigra's power I don't think that it's going to be enough though. We have to help her before she gets herself killed." The others nodded as they charged again in a hope that this time that they could stop the woman.

Glory struggled for a moment before she suddenly began spinning faster and faster turning herself into a small twister.

"Pull back," Captain America ordered. "let her use up her energy. Siryn, Dazzler, Lockheed, the three of you are back up." The two women and dragon nodded and began their assault. Lockheed maneuvered around Glory letting loose with small streams of flames, Siryn let loose with a powerful scream that shattered the surrounding windows, while Dazzler began absorbing the access sound. She then raised her hands into a gun like shape and released a powerful laser blast of energy. The others watched as the attack slammed into the spinning hell goddess but didn't seem to actually be doing all that much damage despite the high intensity of the laser, the heat of the flames, or the eardrum shattering screaming.

"It's not working," Dazzler shouted over her teammate as she continued to pour more and more energy into the attack.

"Fine just keep her from getting too close to us then." Tigra said.

Glory appeared to be tired of her twister attack as she finally came to a stop to face off with the heroes. Wasp led the attack by peppering the woman with energy blasts. An annoyed Glory made several swipes, but kept on missing. "Fine you want to play like that then let's try this." Glory said as she slammed her hands together. A small shockwave seemed to echo around the woman as Wasp was thrown back and landed on the ground.

"We should protect the Wasp." Captain America said, as he noticed that Glory was waltzing towards the down heroine. As long as she believed that Was was the Key there was a danger she would try and kidnap her. He launched his shield and watched as it was caught and then thrown back at him. He dodged to the side and saw that the shield had sliced itself into the side of a car and was now stuck in the side of a door.  
>The group moved forward to intercept the hell goddess. Tigra was tossed into a wallwhile Shadowcat was backhanded into a tree. Siryn and Dazzler were wrapped with a metal pole that made it impossible for them to hit Glory without hitting each other Iron Fist had a punch that had lifted him up and into a tree leaving just Cap. He swung his fist hopefully, but Glory was ready and caught the fist.<p>

"Huh, you don't even have any special powers to help you." The woman said dismissively. "Now that the others have been shut down, I guess your nothing to me in fact your even less than nothing." She said as she examined the Avenger. "Why are you even bothering to fight me anyways? The others can at least kind of make me notice them but your even less of a threat to me than they are."

"You wouldn't be the first one to dismiss me." Captain America returned as he grabbed the arm hold him and with a flick of his wrist sent the woman sailing over his arm. "I don't need a lot of powers to fight you with though." He said as he looked at the Goddess. In a way battling this woman was similar to sparring with She-Hulk, you just had to change you methods and make her beat herself up. That and make sure you stayed out of her grasp.

"You just threw me!" An enraged Glory said as she stomped toward the figure and reached for the man.  
>Cap grabbed her again this time tripping her as she over extended herself slamming her face into the wall. "I told you not to count me out of the fight." The former soldier said as he waited for thehell goddess to get back up to her feet.<p>

"I'm going to paint the streets with your blood when I get my hands on you." Glory snarled as she climbed back to her feet.

"Then you're going to have to be able to grab me first." Captain America taunted as he stood at the ready for the woman to launch another attack at him. Growling Glory moved at him, this time Cap flipped her slamming her back into the street. He backed away and allowed the woman to climb back to her feet. They didn't have the strength or power to hurt her that meant that they had to try something different and while his shield was stuck in the side of a car all he had was his own hands and feet to fight her with. Glory came at him again this time both hands stretched out. Cap leaned back as she moved forward and planted one foot into her gut as he rolled sending Glory flying over him.

The woman squawked indignantly as she was sent flying across the street and through a display window. Captain America climbed back to his feet and watched as the bedraggled woman got back up angrily. He watched her warily wondering what she would try next. The indignant hell goddess stepped out of the window and stood glaring across the street glaring at the figure that had been so effortlessly tossing her around despite the fact that she was faster and stronger than he could ever hope to be. "I don't know how you're doing that, but there's more than one way to kill you." She said as she jerked a metal pole up and threw it. Captain America slid under the attack and got behind a car while Glory looked for more items to throw. She found a nice piece of rubble and waited for the man to come out getting impatient she threw it towards the downed heroes that she had left stunned and dazed already. Captain America lunged out of his hiding place and grabbed green and yellow garbed figure and the two of them rolled out of the way. Glory smiled as she followed this up with another of her makeshift spears. The spear was true and the man had no chance to get out of the way Glory smiled as the force of the spear striking him in the back launched the man into a wall. She did frown though as she heard a clanging sound. She saw that the human had managed to retrieve his shield while he had been hiding behind the car. Not that it had done him much good. She thought with a smirk.

She walked out into the street and began looking around. "Okay Key where are you? I want to hurry up and get going we got places to be." She said as she began searching for her Key.

"Still not your Key." Wasp said as she suddenly shot up in front of Glory growing to be about 15 feet as her fist socked Glory in the jaw and sent the woman stumbling back. Without hesitation she shrunk back down to insect size before a stumbling Glory could focus on her. Zipping around behind Glory she grew again this time to twenty feet and kicked her in the back before shrinking.

Glory growled as she spun around to face this new attack but didn't see anything. "Come on my sweet little Key, it's time to stop stalling." She said.

Wasp responded by growing to 30 feet. ** "I already told you that I'm not your Key, get that through your thick skull."** She thundered down at the blonde figure beneath her.

This time Glory turned around and cursed as she saw the large figure before her. "You have got to be kidding me." She complained, as a giant hand swatted her into the ground. The crazed hell god climbed back to her feet though and glared at the figure. Wasp tried to strike again, but this time Glory sped out of the way causing the giant to miss. While the ground was still shaking, Glory slammed both of her fists into the back of Wasp's leg and a painful crack was heard and Wasp fell down to her knee as she held her ankle. "There that's much better." Glory said as she saw that the large figure was immobilized somewhat. "I think I liked you when you were a more manageable size though." She said as she walked over to one of the hands and grabbed one of the oversized fingers and with a twist they heard the finger snap. "Then again this size does have certain uses as well." She added with a smile as she broke the next finger.

Wasp groaned as she quickly shrunk down to human size. Her body ached from going from insect size to giant size. She had never quiet mastered the giant part of the Pym Particles like Henry had. Her body always had a bad reaction to the growing which is why she rarely if ever used the ability add the pain of a broken ankle and her fingers and she was just about out of it.

Glory smiled in triumph as she looked down at the fallen meta human. With a kicked she smashed her face in knocking the woman unconscious. She then reached down and grabbed the woman by the back of her costume and pulled her up to her eye level and looked her over. "Who would have thought that so much power would be in such a pathetic form." She said as she examined the weakened figure. The hellgod frowned as she the face of the Wasp was bleeding from where she had kicked her. The blood was now dribbling down from her face and onto the street. The only problem though was that the blood wasn't singing to her like it should be. "Why you little liar, you're not my key!" She said angrily as she lifted the woman up even higher and threw her to the side.

Tigra forced herself to move catching the young woman before she could impale herself on the broken glass that littered the area. She then placed the woman down in a gentle and comforting method. She then positioned herself between the fallen heroes and Glory.

"Alright Slayer, you've had your fun now where is my Key? I'm losing what patience that I have." Glory said angrily. "I don't have time to play your games with you anymore."

Tigra grinned as she looked at the woman. "Sorry lady, but the Slayer never told me where your Key is." Technically this was the truth, as Mr. Giles had been the one to tell them who and where the Key really was. Buffy Summers hadn't been the one to tell them who and what the key was. Now she just had to see if Glory really was stupid enough to believe that line. If she was right, then she might even hesitate in trying to kill them as she wouldn't be able to torture the information out of any of them.  
>"This isn't over. Glory declared as she disappeared in a blur as she sped off.<p>

Tigra slumped her shoulders in relief. They had all been able to do some damage but it still hadn't been enough to really stop the woman. It was almost like fighting the Hulk. The woman just kept coming no matter what it was that they did to her. Still it meant that they could fight a delaying battle against the Hell God. The various heroes painfully climbed to their feet as they tried to figure out just what it was that they could do now.

"Come, we should check with Mr. Giles." Iron Fist said.

"Sound good to me, I'd rather not be here when the cops show up." Dazzler said.

"No kidding," Shadowcat said as she looked at the damage that their fight had caused. Half of main street appeared to have been destroyed during their scuffle that hadn't really helped them out anymore than they had before.

"Well at least I'll be able to track her now." Tigra said with a weak smile as the group quickly did their best to disappear. The next time they would be even better prepared to deal with the strange powerhouse that was Glory.

* * *

><p>One more chapter maybe two and this little baby can be put to bed.<p> 


	6. Glory VS Empowered Scoobies

and we're back with another chapter full of characters I still don't own the rights to. Sorry about the wait.

* * *

><p>Once they regrouped at the Magic Shop Mr. Giles helped them go about wrapping their various injuries. A trip to the hospital had them spending a couple of days there as well to make sure that all of the wounds the group had sustained were okay. Wasp with her broken bones was the worst though the others were all battered from the Hell goddess doing her best to toss them all over the streets as if they were nothing.<p>

"I suppose that you'll want to stay now and see this through?" Giles had questioned them a couple days later, as they regrouped at the Magic Shop getting confirming nods from the heroes.

"They wanted our help, and we let them down." Siryn noted. "Ah don wannae be making that mistake again ah would rather show em we're worth the chance that they gave to us."

The door suddenly came crashing down and the Hell-Goddess stood before them. "Too bad you're all about to be dead." Glory said, as she entered the store. At her feet was a mailman that had obviously been caught by the woman as she walked in.

"So shiny." The mail carrier said as it stared at Shadowcat with awe. "All bright and Green."

Glory smiled as she looked at Shadowcat. "Good job." She said, as she patted the raving figure on the head like a good pet. "So it's the brat huh? That's where my Key has been hiding all of this time? Well that will make things easier for me." She said, as she walked towards the figure. She ignored the dragon that flared its wings and breathed out a stream of flame as she walked through the fire. She had found her Key, and there was nothing that was going to stop her from claiming what was hers. Glory stumbled a bit as the irritatingly familiar shield bounced off her face and into the hands of the man in red, white, and blue. "Do you really think that you're going to have any better of a chance now than you did a few days earlier?" The woman snarled, as she tried to make another grab for her Key only to watch her hand pass through the girl who then responded with a fist towards her. The Hell-Goddess barely even felt the blow from the teen though. The dragon charging at her and blowing fire at her was another matter entirely though as she had to keep her clothes safe. As she prepared to deal with those she felt a stinging sensation as claws ripped through her back with the tiger woman then bouncing away. A large screech came next, the disoriented Hell-Goddess was actually blown off her feet and sent hurtling into a wall. Following behind the attack was a small fairy like woman who was shooting some sort of attack at her face blinding her. When the annoyance finally moved out of the way she was on the receiving in of a judo throw that sent her flying across the room to slam into another wall.

"Keep the pressure on," Captain America ordered the group of heroes, "if we can keep altering where the attack comes in it should confuse her enough for us to take her down." Saying this, the two masked men ran and launched themselves at the woman. Their feet each connected with woman pushing her back down. While the woman was struggling to climb back up a hand came out of the floor grasped her and sunk her halfway into the floor.

"No," Glory snarled as she flexed her various muscles and shattered the floor around her. "I am too close to getting back to have you stop me now." She declared to them, as she climbed out of the shattered floor only to be met with an energy blast to her face from Dazzler.

"Mr. Giles turn that cd player on." Shadowcat ordered as she and Lockheed ran past the Englishman.

"Um what? Ah yes of course sound." Giles said as he found a nearby boom box he took a deep breath closed his eyes in anticipation for the awful racket that today's music had. Why it couldn't be some of the old time rock 'n' roll he wouldn't ever know." As he hit the play button though, he was surprised when no sound came out. He looked the device over, and saw that the red power light was still off no matter how much he flipped the various switches and knobs on it. He couldn't believe of all the bloody bad times for the batteries to die that it had to be when they actually needed the racket sounds that they thought of as music. He grabbed the boom box and ran for the back where he kept a few odds and ends. Once there he tore open a drawer and found a flashlight. He looked up as he saw the group were doing their best to keep Glory boxed in, but even he wasn't sure how much longer they were going to manage that when you consider how much of the time they were spending dodging her over powered blows. Time that he was sure they would rather be using to strike at her instead.

"Mr. Giles, hurry!" Shadowcat said as she performed a kicked toward a pressure point, but watched as the blow seemed to barely even affect the woman. She then rolled away as another arm reached out to grab at her. The group's one saving grace at the moment was that the Hell-Goddess was more focused on her than she was on the others giving them time to move in and out in the fight against Glory. As long as she could dance in and out of the way then they might stand a chance of wearing the Hell-Goddess down.

"Shadowcat get out of here." Captain America ordered the mutant. "It's your job to keep that body safe. We'll do what we can to keep her hear."

"Would ye leave yer friends at a time like this?" Siryn questioned as she ducked behind the display shelf.

Captain America had to admit that he didn't think that he could do such a thing, but that didn't mean that the young girl had to stay and die here with them either. He was distracted from his thoughts though as he raised his arm to catch an incoming fist and it sent him flying into the back part of the store.

Glory smiled as she followed up to where the Sentinel of Liberty had fallen. Near him was something that was of great interest to her." Well, well, well so that's how you did it." She said as she began striding forward. She hurled a shelf at Dazzler forcing the mutant to duck, as Iron Fist came at her she grabbed him by his belt and sent him flying through the door that she had just broken down, Tigra was caught by her hair and then sent flying into the large bookshelf in the back all of the books came tumbling down on top of the heroine, as Dazzler moved forward to prepare another scream Glory tossed some of the chairs that had been around the table at her forcing her to redirect her blasts toward the furniture.

Glory smiled as she stood near Captain America. "I think it's time to end this little game of dress up don't you?" She questioned in a bemused tone as she looked down at the hero at her feet. She absently noticed that her Key was pulling what used to be the Slayer out of the pile of books with her odd ghost ability. She reared her fist back and smashed her fist forward and all of the heroes watched helplessly as her fist shattered the bust of Janus. "Good, now that, that's over I think it's time to finish you fools off." Glory said as she turned to look at the group of fallen figures. That was the moment that Giles finally managed to get the batteries into the stereo which finally started to blaring out music into the room. Glory turned and smirked at the Watcher. "Looks like we're back to playing with the old players." She cackled as she faced off with the Scoobies.

"Sounds alright with me." A familiar voice said Glory turned to look to see the Slayer standing there before her in a simple black bikini. "Lucy I'm home." Buffy said with a grin as she focused on the Hell-Goddess." I think they're playing our song as well." She said with a smirk.

"I'm home too." Xander said as his legs suddenly twirled out and he knocked the Hell-Goddess down. Glory glared angrily as she looked up at the human that had just tripped her. "Let's play." Xander said, gesturing the woman towards him.

Glory growled angrily. "How did you do that? I took away your power." She complained to him as she climbed back to her feet.

"Not exactly ya hell bitch." Spike said as he climbed to his feet ripping the mask off of his face. He also grabbed his jacket which had fallen to the floor and shrugged it on, he then stuffed the mask into a pocket pulled out a zippo and lit a cigarette. "Ya may of put us back inta the driver seats ya bloody psycho, but we still got the skills and powers." The vampire's face changed as he summoned the power of his demon. "And let me tell ya, the combination ought to make this interesting." He said as licked his fangs in excitement. He then fell into a Kung-Fu stance as he prepared to continue the fight with the woman.

"That's right." Tara said as she climbed up from where she had fallen. "We're all here and ready to go and take you on." She assured the Hell-Goddess.

"Fine, I beat you as you and I've beat your costumes, now I'll just beat you as costumed heroes." Glory said defiantly as she glared at the group that still dared to stand in her way. Now that I know where my Key is though I don't have to go easy on any of you anymore though." She said with a smirk.

"If you can." Anya said." Do you have any idea how much it's going to take to replace all of the things you've destroyed though?" The former demon complained before she fired a powerful laser at the woman bowling her over.

"Let's do it then." Buffy said with a wicked grin and suddenly her body shifted into its Tigra form. "Because I got a lot of pain to pay you back with." She said as she grabbed the Hell-Goddess and threw her through the window. "First things first though, get out of the store you've done enough damage already."

The others all followed the woman out to see Glory was rising back to her feet. Xander grabbed his shield up and was a bit disappointed as he realized that the weapon had returned to its original plastic. Not about to let that stop him though he tossed the toy shield at Glory and ran at her.

Glory batted the shield aside causing the cheap plastic to shatter and then caught the incoming fist of the Slayer while she was distracted Spike moved forward with a glowing hand and drove the fist into the arm of the Hell-Goddess. The blow came as such a surprise as the combination of vampire strength and chi energy that Glory released Buffy only for the Slayer to drop to the ground as a combination of sound and energy slammed into Glory and sent her flying.

Spike charged after her, but pulled back in surprise and shock as his skin began smoking. The shadows from the storefronts didn't extend to cover the entire street forcing him to pull back until the sun finished setting. The vampire growled angrily as he was forced to stand there and wait while the others went about kicking the ass of the Hell-Goddess. "Of all the sodding luck." Spike grumbled as he watched the others. "I really wanted another go at her."

"Giles stay in the shop. Buffy ordered, as she noticed that the Watcher looked like he was about to come out and join them. The Watcher could only nod as he headed in the back for a weapon that he might use against Glory.

"Alright Scoobies, lets ride." Xander said, as the Scoobies charged at the Hell-Goddess.

Glory shook off the effects of the various strikes and continued forward her eyes narrowing in on the brunette girl. "Key, I am tired of you being naughty. It's time for you to come back with me so that we can prepare for the ceremony it's taken a lot longer than I thought it would to find you." She huffed as she walked toward Dawn while dodging the various strikes.

"You got to catch me first." Dawn said with a grin as she phased herself letting the incoming arm to pass harmlessly through her. "A lot easier said than done I might add." She mocked the woman, as she performed a spin kick that the woman barely even felt.

"Now's not the time for that Dawn-Miester. " Xander said as he threw a broken stop sign at Glory. The metal projectile bounced off of her though. A grumbling Xander moved forward and slammed his feet into the face of the woman. While she was blinded he brought his elbow down upon her neck. Glory stomped her feet causing the ground to shake forcing the heroes to focus more on keeping their balance than in trying to fight the woman. "Now would have been a nice time to have had spider-man's powers." The young man noted, as he worked on keeping upright.

"Go away." Glory ordered as she swatted the costumed carpenter to the side. Xander grunted as he slammed into the wall, but he was quick to rise back to his feet and charge at her again.

"Any time there Willow!" He said.

"Right." A voice said, and suddenly a tiny Willow was in the face of the Hell-Goddess and was blasting away at her with her bio stings. Glory kept swinging at her, but could only growl in frustration though as the small figure was simply too small and agile for her to hit. The combined power of all of them was putting even her endurance levels to the test. Glory took in a deep breath as Willow came back at her and let it out. The power behind the breath caught the small figure and sent her sailing away and fall into the street unconscious. A moment later she began returning to her regular size.

"Alright, not what I was hoping for." Xander said as he looked at his downed childhood friend. He placed himself between the Hell-Goddess and Willow as he tried to think of another way to take the woman before him down. There had to be something that they were missing.

Glory sneered and walked toward him, Tara dropped to the ground in front of them and released a glass shattering scream. The force of the scream lifted the Hell-Goddess up and sent her tumbling away. "Do you have a plan yet?" She asked as she stared at the woman who was already climbing back up to her feet. She had screamed loud and sharp enough to burst a normal human's eardrums, yet their opponent barely even seemed effected by her attack. "Back off ye Glaikit*." The witch ordered. She then muttered some words in Latin and a shimmering wall appeared between the Scoobies and the Hell-Goddess.

"You're still trying to use magic against me?" Glory scoffed as she marched up to the wall of energy reared her fist back and began to pound on the wall.

Tara clutched at her head in pain as the woman treated her wall like a punching bag. The girl was not going to give up willingly though and added more power to the barrier. They could all see the blood running down her nose as she fell to her knees. Buffy landed next to Tara and help the girl as she finally fell unconscious.

"Ah that's much better." Glory said, as she finally shattered the barrier that had been between her and the Scoobies. "Alright Key, now come here." She commanded, pointing her finger to her feet as if expecting the teen to scurry over to her like a disobedient puppy dog.

"That didn't work the last time, why do you think it will work this time?" Dawn questioned curiously, as she pointedly didn't move from where she was standing. "Besides, in case it escaped your notice, cats aren't real good at following orders."

"Well think about who you're talking to." Buffy reminded her sister. "She's hardly the brightest bulb."

Glory glared at the mocking sister and began moving forward only for a laser blast straight to the face to blind her. Squawking the Hell-Goddess turned to see Dazzler focusing her power at Glory. "You haven't taken down all of us yet." Anya said defiantly. "Besides you still have to pay for all of the damage done to my precious money making shop. Do you think that the place fixes itself, it cost money to do that. My hard earned money I might add." She spat out at the Hell-Goddess angrily, as she continued to pour the power on. The former demon finally stopped and they saw that the woman had some burned skin, but even as they were looking at her the skin healed itself back up.

Glory frowned as she watched her skin repair itself as if surprised that she had seen her skin damaged. She then turned her gaze on the Vengeance Demon turned Shop Owner. "You damaged my skin!" She screeched out at the girl. "Do you have any idea what would have happened if I hadn't fixed it?" She demanded of the former demon. "Being as Glorious as I am is no hard feat, particularly when I'm stuck in a little weakling and insignificant form like this one." The angry Hell-Goddess reached down and began throwing bits of pavement toward Anya.

The former demon moved her hands around as fast as she could to counter the rocks and pavement that were being thrown at her. She had to time her counters just right, because if she didn't, they would break the larger parts and pelt all of them like a hundred bullets. The girl had her hands in the shape of pistols and flashes of light erupted from the tips. One rock managed to slip through though and clipped her on the head causing her to fall.

"Well Slayer I guess that leaves just you, the vampire, and him between me and my Key." Glory said as she examined the remaining figures that were arrayed against her. So which one of you wants to go next?

"Xander do you have any more ideas?" Buffy questioned curiously as she eyed the woman.

"We need to buy time." Xander returned to his friend. "That means we need to keep staggering the attacks on her. It's the only way that we're going to win. We have to beat the time limit that she's on so that means we each got to take her on and hope that we can keep her busy long enough that we can beat whatever her time limit is."

"I think that it's a crazy gamble, but I'll do it since it's the only plan we actually have." Buffy said with a shrug as she moved forward to fight with Glory yet again.

"Not so fast Slayer, I want a go at her." Spike growled as he finally stepped into the street, the shadows having finally lengthened enough to cover the whole street. The vampire smirked as he began rushing at the blonde figure. Glory smirked as she stood and waited for the charging vampire to come to her. The vampires fist lashed out to strike Glory the Hell-Goddess. Glory let out an oomph sound as she was launched several feet back. The Hell-Goddess had obviously forgotten that the vampire's strength had increased dramatically in power thanks to the spell.

"I'll tear you a new one for that." Glory snarled as she super sped back toward the vampire

"You're more than welcome to try bint." Spike shot back as he began dodging the various blows that Glory was sending at him. He leaped at a tree then bounced off the wall and delivered a kick to the back of her head. Glory staggered a bit from the blow, but didn't go down. The vampire kept moving not sure how long he could really keep this up. While Glory had super speed, her ability to react was to slow to compensate which meant for the most part she fought at the same speed as a Master vampire or a Slayer did. He just had to stay ahead of her blows for as long as possible. He couldn't believe that he was following a plan dreamed up by the Whelp, even if he did have some of Captain America in his head. Then again his head was usually empty enough that there was plenty of room for lots of the Captain to be in. he thought optimistically.

"Gotchya," Glory said as he hand wrapped around his foot she then began swing the vampire around slamming him between two cars. The vampire spat a mouthful of blood at her in defiance before he was slammed into a windshield.

"Now?" Buffy questioned hopefully.

"Yeah go ahead Buffster, your turn to take a swing at her." Xander said, as he climbed to his feet and watched the fight intently.

The feline college girl nodded as she leaped onto a car and then flipped in the air coming down with her foot slamming into the face of Glory. The Hell-Goddess squawked indignantly as she was slammed into another car. Buffy ripped the hood off the car that she had been slamming Spike into and leaped alongside of Glory and began beating on her.

Glory shrugged the hits off and ripped the hood out of the Slayer's hands and tossed it to the side. The two then grabbed onto each other and began playing a super powered game of mercy against each other. The two trembled for a moment and then Glory smiled a bit as she began forcing the young woman's arms back. The blonde's knees buckled as she was forced even farther back. A leg raised up and slammed into the gut of the Slayer. The blonde coughed as she was thrown back. Using the Slayer's unsteady footing to her advantage Glory grabbed her and sent her sailing onto the rooftops. Even as she was sailing the Slayer managed to twist her body around and landed on her feet. The Slayer hissed like a giant cat at the Hell-Goddess as she clawed the air in front of her.

"It'll take more than that to get rid of me Lady Skanks-a-Lot." The Slayer said, as she leaped from the roof and bounced off a car before coming in to confront the woman. Instead of trying to confront her head on, the Slayer tried a different approach by trying to slash through the Hell-Goddess. The hands darted back and forth trying to get the needed cut that would stop the woman.

Glory smiled as the claws barely left any obvious damage on her. The damage was actually more obvious on her clothes than it was on her. This was merely another annoyance between her and her Key.

Buffy moved again, making several slashing movements before leaping back before the counter punch could send her through a wall. The girl smirked as she saw some of the damage that she had inflicted on the woman.

"Are you finished yet Slayer? I have a schedule to stick to." Glory said haughtily confident that the Slayer couldn't do any real lasting damage to her.

"Yeah, well while you're going about your to do list you might want to add a trip to a hair stylist. After all there is only so much that the home perm kits can do particularly after getting a trim like that. It gives you a really lopsided look." Buffy mocked the red clad idiot before her.

"What?" Glory demanded in surprise, as her hands went to the side of her head. She felt where her mighty locks normally resided on that half of her hair had been slashed off giving her a very uneven hairdo. "My hair!" The Hell-Goddess declared, as her eyes darted down to the ground where the remains of her hair were fluttering to the ground. You bitch, I'm going to rip your head off for that one." She threatened the blonde.

"Hello, do I look like a dog lady to you? I mean I know I've gotten to be a bit more animalistic and all, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not looking like a dog." The girl waved her hand over her form which showed her feline furred body.

Snarling Glory began swinging at her agile opponent who seemed to be able to move out of the way of the attacks with an almost impossible ease. The girl began flipping away from the Hell-Goddess.

Tiring of swinging and not hitting the annoying Slayer, Glory began tearing parts off the various cars and began chunking them towards the cat like Slayer. Buffy actually seemed to be having fun as she dodged the various flying missiles and was even jumping on top of some of the parts using them to leap even higher and stay even farther away from the woman that was trying to shoot her with a garage's worth of mechanical parts. Her thoughts were diverted when she ducked under several glass shards only for an engine to slam into her gut knocking her to the ground. The whoozey Slayer tried to climb to her feet only for Glory to meet her and began bending a pair of bumpers around her arms and legs. The Slayer growled and hissed as she tried to unbend the metals bands that were now imprisoning her.

"Now that you can't jump away from me, it's time to make you pay." Glory said with a feral grin.

"Crap." Buffy muttered as she felt the Goddess lift her up and the woman began punching at her. She winced as she felt blow after blow slam into her. She spat blood at the Goddess in anger. She really hated getting the shorthand when it came to fighting. Despite all of the enhancements that the Tigra Spirit that she had gained she was still on the losing end. "Xander, a little help here. "She gasped out toward the only other member of the group she knew was still up.

A roaring sound caused them both to turn and look behind them. There heading straight at them on Spike's motorcycle was Xander. The super soldier leaped off of the motorcycle and the bike went skidding at them. The bike slammed into the back of Glory's legs knocking her to the ground. Buffy slammed into the ground and went bouncing one way while the motorcycle landed on Glory. Snarling the Hell-Goddess tossed the motorcycle off of her legs and turned to confront her latest opponent. "Didn't I already deal with you?" She questioned the carpenter in surprise as she saw him prepared to continue the fight.

"Yeah, well what can I say I got my second wind." Xander jibed, as he prepared for another go with the Hell-Goddess. "I bet if you wait long enough the others will give you another round as well." He said brightly.

Glory frowned as she considered this aspect. The fact was, she was wasting a lot of energy fighting the Slayer and her cohorts. At this rate Ben was going to come out again while she was fighting these idiots, and if they did come back at her they would likely beat her. She would have to beat them quickly if she wanted to win. Fortunately for her, this one was still the weakest of the group. She also didn't have to worry about the shield he had been using earlier either. The Hell-Goddess saw that the Key was moving toward the Slayer to pull her out and realized she had to move quickly. She had one idea that just might work though and it involved lots of violence.  
>Moving faster than the human could react she grabbed Xander by his throat. "Alrighty then Key, it's really very simple. Either you come with me, or I start breaking the necks of all of your little friends." Glory informed the girl with a smirk. "And when it's the vampire well I'll just pop his head off." She added in before the girl could try and figure someway of replacing the two.<p>

Dawn looked around at all of the group of demon hunters and saw that they were incapacitated in some way or other. No one was going to be helping. For the moment she was on her own until the others could wake up or in Buffy's case get free. For the moment it was her call on how to deal with the threat that they were facing. Her next choice was going to be the one that decided whether or not they lived or died. She idly wondered if this was how her sister felt all the time with her duties as the only real hero and guardian of the Hellmouth. If this was the sort of thing she dealt with all the time she wasn't so sure that she wanted to be the one with the power to save the world time and time again. Maybe she would leave the heroics to the others from now on.

"Well Key, what's it going to be?" Glory demanded of the girl. "Am I going to have to start killing all of these costumed idiots, or are you going to come with me like a good little Key? I could always feed off of these people as well." She said thoughtfully.

"Fine," Dawn said as she became solid and raised her hands up in surrender. "We'll play it your way for now." She told the Hell-Goddess angrily "I surrender, and you leave them alone without killing them or sucking out their brains or whatever it is that you call it. That's our deal right?"

"Yeah, sure that 'll be our deal." Glory agreed in a bored manner. The fact that she could kill them all not even seem to interest her.  
>Two of the hobbit like minions stepped out of the shadows and latched onto Dawn's arms. "We have her most Terrifying One that has beauty greater than any other being has."<p>

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Glory said as she tossed Xander to the side causing the carpenter to painfully slam into a wall. "Come on, we have to get my Key to the place." The group nodded as they led Dawn off.

Once the streets were clear Giles came out of the shop with his crossbow primed and ready and once he was sure that the streets were clear he began the process of dragging in each of the Scoobies back into the store. It would seem that things still had not gone as planned. They still had a chance though if they could get themselves back onto their feet. He only hoped that they had the time to get it all done.

* * *

><p>*Scottish word for - stupid, silly or thoughtless.<br>One or two more chapters to go folks.


	7. Regroup

As usual I own nothing of the characters I'm using Joss and Marvel are the owners. Well finally a new chapter after all this time. The story is nearly finished one or two more chapters to go and this tale is done.

* * *

><p>Xander groaned a bit as he nursed some of the wounds that he had received from Glory. Despite their best efforts the woman had really rung all of their bells. The young man that had spent the past few days as Captain America turned to look at one of his best friends with worry. It seemed that the monks hadn't been all that much nicer than their medieval cousins. When the Slayer failed her duty as protector of the Key, something happened to her that had shut her brain down and left her trapped inside of her own mind. This left the Slayer to prowl around the building in a feral manner. Her feline like mentality was currently the one in charge. Willow, Tara, and Giles were working on finding a cure for the spell as they were all going to be needed for the rescue operation that they were already planning. Xander hoped that they could free the blonde from the prison that her mind had become, because losing one of their big hitters right before the second round was really not good. Particularly when you considered how badly they had gotten smashed in the last round. Since they had already lost Dawn, they couldn't afford to have any of their other members gone now. It kind of made him wish that he had arranged for a telepath of some sort to be a part of the team he had constructed. Then again all of the various telepaths that he could think of were all so over charged that they probably would have burned themselves out in this reality. Although it would have been cool to see them dressed as characters like Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Betsy Braddock. Yeah, his inner fan boy would have definitely died happy upon seeing that.<p>

The carpenter/demon fighter turned super soldier adjusted the round metal shield that he had found in the back room. It wasn't balanced very well nor was it as tough as Captain America's shield, but then again beggars couldn't be choosers. The shield was actually something that Giles used when training with Buffy since the blonde rarely bothered with shields preferring to add an extra weapon to her hand or have the advantage of speed and agility. In the hands of Captain America, and now Xander though, a shield was the only weapon that was needed. The boy looked up as he saw the others come in. "Well?"

"We think we have a spell that will let us into Buffy's mind." Willow said. "Giles was just explaining something to us though."

"Yeah, and what was that Giles?" Xander asked curious as to what had Willow looking so downcast.

Giles shifted a bit uncomfortably under the expectant gaze of Xander. "I think you should be prepared for whoever or whatever they pull from the depths of her mind as something that you may not know." He warned him. "A mental assault that has trapped her within her mind after a long term possession is likely to have unwanted consequences." He warned the group. "Buffy may not even be there completely anymore. It is very likely it will be fragments of Buffy's mind may be all that is left."

Xander realized suddenly that Giles was actually feeling guilty about this and was on the verge of laming himself for Buffy's current condition and the likelihood of her surviving with her mind intact.

"So be prepared for the worst got you." Willow said with an affirmative nod. "We can deal with a Buffy with more TIgra memories though Giles. A cationic Kitty Slayer not so much with the helping though."

Giles nodded his head in agreement with the red head's assessment of the situation. "So long as you understand that the person that they bring back may not be the Buffy that we all know and love." He said as a final warning.

"Do it girls." Xander ordered the witches. "Bring Buffy or whoever is in there out, we got us a Hellgod to stomp on and the Buffster will kick our asses if we didn't try and get her out before we head out after Glory." Not to mention he really doubted that they would be able to hurt the Hell-God without all of them working together. So far it was Glory 3 Scoobies 0 and he wasn't sure if they were even going to get another chance as it was.

The two witches nodded their heads as they sat on either side of the tiger girl. They each grabbed one hand and then placed their other hand's against the side of Buffy's head and began chanting. A moment later a glowing light seemed to come from their hands.

"And what shall you be doing while they are doing that?" Giles wondered.

"Recon." Xander returned to the Watcher. "We need to know where Glory and her hobbits of Doom plan on using Dawn Patrols blood. While I'm doing that I reckon that you'll be looking through your books for something similar."

Giles nodded his head in agreement as he went to examine the few sources that they had on Glory while Xander adjusted the shield onto his back. He then headed out and grabbed Spike's motorcycle and zoomed off looking through the streets for some sign of where the youngest member of their little group might be. Glory was going to find out that it took a lot more than what she could manage to knock them out of a fight for good. When you messed with one Scooby you messed with all of them.

Dawn groaned as she came to. One of the demons unfortunately had a brain and had decided to knock her out to prevent her from escaping. She had vaguely recognized the demon she thought. The guy looked like the demon she had bought spell supplies from when she had attempted to raise her mom. Spike had told her that the demon's name was Doc. She couldn't believe that one of Spike's business associates was actually the enemy. Then again she supposed she shouldn't be too surprised since Spike liked to hang out with other demons that were questionable. After this was all over she was going to tear him a new one for introducing her to someone that wanted her dead.

Still she could complain to the vampire about his choices after she broke out of this mess. She tried phasing but it seemed that Doc had magiced the ropes to hold her. Not like that was really a problem though she thought as she quickly began twisting and turning and soon the ropes fell off of her. If she ever met Ororo she would have to thank her for teaching Kitty how to slip out of bindings like those.

Standing up Dawn began creeping away so that she could get gone. She had to phase into a few random bits and pieces of furniture and crates as Glory's minions patrolled the area. Not that she could see these guys as being real good as security. Then again if they made a lot of noise getting taken out there was a good chance that Glory would show up as well. Considering that the Hell-God had managed to beat them when they were all there she really didn't like her chances of beating her on her own. So for the time being that meant that she had to run away and hide from these guys. Maybe even bring the others back so that they could mess up with Glory's plans even more than they had already. That was sounding of the good actually.

She nearly made it to the door when Doc came strolling by. "My, my just where do you think you're going my dear? You can't leave now you have an important part to play in tonight's ceremony. "The old demon said as he shook his head at her as if she was a naughty school girl out to late.

"Thanks but no thanks, getting bled out all over the place really isn't my idea of a good time." Dawn said as she got into a fighters stance. "Besides being the victim really isn't my thing anymore. If you don't believe me then you're more than welcome to try me though." She offered as she ushered the demon warlock toward her.

"If you insist." Doc said as he lunged at her. Dawn yelped and barely managed to spin out of the way of the lunge. For an old guy he was pretty spry. Then again he was a demon and the usual rules for ageing rarely applied to them. She wondered if she had something like that if she was supposed to be some sort of super energy source in her. It would be fun to gloat at Buffy over when she had graying hair and wrinkles.

She could try running, but she needed to stop these guys from doing whatever it was that they were trying to do. With that in mind she watched Doc as he seemed to be deciding on what action it was that he wanted to use on her. He opened his mouth and Dawn barely phased in time as the tongue that would have hit her passed right through. It was only Kitty's experience in dealing with random attacks like that which allowed her to dodge as it was. "Alright that is just gross." Dawn noted in disgust as she looked at the demon. "I mean seriously, you were going to attack me with your tongue? Didn't anyone ever teach you any manners?" She demanded in annoyance.

"Impressive." Doc said as he stared at the girl with interest cocking his head to the side as he studied her. "You made yourself intangible from physical attacks. I wonder if there are other ways to hurt you though?" He questioned curiously as he drew a dagger from the folds of the robes that he wore.

"So you're going to try and stab me with a knife?" Dawn asked dubiously. "What makes you think that it's going to hurt me anymore than you trying to hit me with your tongue?"

"Let's find out." Doc returned as he began slashing at the girl who either ducked or moved out of the way at the last instant.

Dawn was pretty sure that his knife couldn't hurt her. However she really didn't want to chance it either. The fact that she remembered just how much a knife hurt when she had sliced herself open in an attempt to prove her existence gave her the much needed memory for that.

"Enough." Glory said as she walked into the room and glared at her rebellious ticket home. "And you Key, stop trying to escape." She ordered while giving a level glare at the costumed girl.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Simple I do this." Glory said as she reached for something behind a crate and out of Dawn's sight and dragged a little girl out from behind the corner. "Now I'm betting the Slayer and her friends went and taught you all about the supposed value of human life. Why they believe that I'll never know since humans are only good for eating and a few other things. So you either be a good little key and do as you're told, or I break this brat's neck." Glory said with a smile on her face as she wrapped her hand around the kid's neck.

Dawn glared but finally nodded her head as she raised her hands in surrender. She was then forced to pull an ugly dress over her clothes and then angrily sat down and sulked. Glory had found her weakness in that she could threaten the lives of humans and she could get the mutant/Key/girl to do exactly as she wanted her to do. Which was why she was wearing the hideous dress. She really hoped that the others came up with a plan because at the moment she was out of ideas on what it was that she could do.

* * *

><p>The pair of witches found themselves in an odd room it looked both like a house and a cave. There were pictures that the girls recognized as being the images from Buffy's mind, but there were also images that they had no idea where they came from. At the moment they were going to guess they were part of the TIgra mentality. The girls turned to see a little girl with a tiger at her side. "Hello Willow, Tara." The girl greeted calmly as if she had been expecting them. Then again it was Buffy's mind, so she had to have been aware of the new presences that were inside of her.<p>

The girls gave relieved smiles at the little girl. "Hello Buffy." Willow said as she knelt down beside the child so that they were looking each other in the eyes.

"So," the little girl said, "what are you doing here?"

Willow looked momentarily lost at that, as if unsure as to what it was that she should say to the small child before her. She had come in here expecting to speak to the Buffy that she knew not this little girl in a pink princess dress. A part of her had actually been expecting teenage Buffy or maybe Hemry Buffy, but not child Buffy. It made what she was doing all the harder as far as she was concerned. Then there was the fact that she wasn't very good with kids. She shook her head she was babbling inside of her head while inside the head of Buffy and now her brain hurt or was its Buffy's head that hurt? The more questions the redhead asked herself the more confused she got as her mind ran in circles looking for answers that she didn't have. "Actually we're ah." She stammered in confusion hoping something would come to her.

"We're here for you." Tara said saving her girlfriend from trying to explain things to e rest friend. "You're pretty little Kitty can even listen with us." She added nodding towards the large Tiger that was looking at them through silted eyes. The girls then watched the first of many repetitions' of an old memory.

* * *

><p>Xander and Spike were currently moving in to talk with the one known as Doc as they entered the shop. The two of them had tried several other places beforehand Glory's hotel, they had questioned the hospital staff, and had gone to some of the places where several of Glory's victims had been discovered. As they looked around the room they saw the figure of the demon working at a table filled with books and various papers.<p>

The image of the demon working diligently over everything caused Xander to flash to Giles. It was like watching demon Giles making sure that they had all of their bases covered all the guy needed was a tweed suit and the image would be complete. He also knew if Giles were to hear he had thought that he would be regretting it for a long time. Since he was with Spike he knew that eventually that the vampire would have told Giles about the comparison. Probably at the worst or most humiliating time possible as well. It seemed Captain America had helped to clear up some of his foot in mouth syndrome.

"What can I do for you boys, want some Cocoa?" Doc questioned the pair.

"Another time perhaps." Xander said diplomatically as looked the figure over. "Spike here says that you've got your hands in just about all of the various pies in some way or other." He said casually jerking his head toward the vampire that was skulking on the edge of the shop.

"I do try and keep in business." Doc returned with a shrug.

Xander shook his head. So this was what the equivalent to a demon mom and pop store was like. There were some things that he hadn't really wanted the answer to. Then again he hadn't asked the question either. "Yeah, well then I'm sure in your business then that you may have heard rumors about where Glory may have gone. I'm sure Spike here can make it worth your while to tell us a few things." He offered with an easy going smile.

"Oi, why are you offering him my money." Spike grumbled.

"Because your money is of the stolen variety. Xander returned to him. "Now about that information."

Doc looked at the boy for a moment as he considered what to tell the boy. "Glory ... Glory. Oh!" He said as if coming to a sudden revelation. "You don't mean Glorificus. Gosh. What do you wanna get mixed up with her for? That's a sure way to get yourselves killed. I hear she's awfully unpleasant. When it comes to hellgods, my best advice is get out of the way and stay there."

"Love to can't." Spike returned.

"Not an option." Xander returned with conviction.

Doc began to stammer as he got up and began rifling through various cabinets. "Well, uh, other than that I'd like to help ... but I-I'm a small-town guy. This Glorificus, if it is her ... whoo, she's big city." The demon said sounding somewhat nervous.

"She's got the Slayer's kid sister." Spike returned stonily.

"That girl you brought here." Doc said in recognition. "Sweet little thing. How'd things work out with her mom? Changed her mind, didn't she?" He asked curiously as he tried to change the subject.

Yeah. You got any idea where Glory would take her? Spike asked in annoyance while ignoring the rather pointed glare that Xander was leveling at him.

"You brought Dawn here?" He demanded in anger and disbelief.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Spike returned with a shrug.

Doc nodded his head. "Right." He said pausing for a moment in thought. "Well, I may know a fella you know, who knows a fella in. China. He might-"

Spike cut the demon off. "How the hell are we supposed to get to China? Teleport?"

"I guess." Doc said looking unsure.

"Surely, there's got to be another way. Xander tried. If your scared of retaliation perhaps we can protect you.

"You can't even protect your own members." Doc reminded the carpenter dryly. "Now why should I believe that you can protect me?"

"Huh good question." Xander admitted. "Because win or lose it's all about to come down and either the world ends or we beat Glory." He informed the demon. "So either you get a win on the Slayer's notebook, or you die along with everyone else knowing that you could have done something to stop it." He tried.

Doc still didn't look convinced. "I really wish I could help you. Wish you luck." He said waving at them as if to hurry them out of the shop.

"You're lying. "Spike growled. "And what's more I believe you're standing right in front of the very thing we need."

Doc smirks at the vampire and suddenly leaps to his left. Suddenly he's behind Spike, who turns in surprise as Doc grabs a sword that's leaning against the wall. He puts the sword tip to Spike's throat. "Idiot." Doc said softly.

Spike smirks back at the figure as he slaps the sword away. "That pig sticker ain't gonna do it against me mate." He said as he glowered at the figure. Doc surprised them by hitting a nearby bookshelf causing an avalanche of books and shelves to fall on top of the vampire burying him beneath the books.

Doc opened his mouth and a long tongue spat out at Xander. Xander easily sidestepped the attack and rushed at the figure slamming his shoulder into the demon. Doc was thrown across the room in surprise. Xander unslung his shield and charged. The demon swung and Xander ducked before slam the edge of his shield into the side of the demon causing it to his in pain. Doc retaliated by attacking with a flurry of blows. Xander was only able to dodge about a quarter of the blows even with the shield as Doc moved faster than even his newly enhanced body could keep up with. He crouched and held the shield over his head though and weathered the storm of attacks.

The blows finally stop and he saw that Doc had moved away from him and grabbed a box that had been setting on the table and tossed it into the fireplace. "Why?" Xander asked curiously.

"You think only underworld bottom-feeders worship the Beast?" Doc questioned the boy before him. When this is all over I shall be risen above all other worshippers and be rewarded for my service."

"Not if I can help it." Xander returned as he threw the shield. It slammed into the fireplace knocking the box out even as the shield skittered to the other side of the room. Xander then tackled Doc and the two began rolling around. Xander was obviously the stronger of the two as he appeared on top and quickly grabbed the fallen sword and slammed it into the chest of the demon.

Spike groaned as he forced the bookshelf off of himself. He nodded to Xander as he climbed back to his feet. "I see ya still got it then." He noted as he looked at the demon that had been skewered. "I was kind of worried that soldier boy had overwritten ya so much that there wouldn't have been anything left of the old you."

"Yeah me to." Xander agreed. "It looks like the old me is still in here as well and is still willing to kill though."

"That's good to know, didn't need you trying to arrest them when we needed ya to kill them." Spike said in relief.

"Don't forget Cap was also a soldier during WWII, I'm pretty sure he has more than his fair share of kills." Xander reminded the vampire.

"Maybe, but a lot of his fights with people with powers or abilities has him arresting them these days." Spike said as he strolled over to the singed ox and picked it up.

"And you, how much of you is there and how much is Danny Rand?" Xander asked the demon curiously.

"Don't know." Spike admitted. "I'll need to get myself into a good old fashioned brawl to find out."

"So what do we got?" Xander questioned curiously looking at the box.

Spike shrugs. "Something worth dying for." He returned to the boy.

Xander rolls his eyes as he retrieves his shield and follows Spike out of the shop. "I figured that one out already." He complained.

"I never can tell with you Harris." Spike threw over his shoulder.

* * *

><p>Within the confines of Buffy's mind the three girls walked down a hallway the tiger staying in the shadows but always there. "You know this is kind of weird I was expecting to see more of the First Slayer." Willow said as she looked around. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, the last time we met was real memorable and all and so not looking for the rerun of that."<p>

Tara smiled at her girlfriend. "That's because we are in the conscious mind of Buffy. The Slayer exists within her soul. When you all combined that time you were connected to all parts of Buffy and the Slayer allowing her to follow you through all of the entryways."

"Huh, that's nice and kind of a relief to know that there won't be brain pulling or anything like that." Willow said with a smile.

"The Tigra Spirit is also keeping her away." The mental Buffy explained to her friends. They had long since left the child version of the blonde and were now dealing with one that was much like the Buffy that they knew. "As long as Tigra is protecting us then we don't have to worry about her coming for us. She also knows that I'm the boss." The blonde said with a smirk.

The humor of the moment was destroyed though as they saw Buffy lay a pillow over the head of Dawn. "Buffy you have to stop this." Willow pleaded.

"Stop what?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Killing Dawn." Willow said nodding towards the figure lying motionlessly on the bed. She had seen this same scene play out three or four times and she didn't think that there was any good coming from it.

"Why?" Buffy questioned.

"Because you didn't do this." Tara said soothingly. "Dawn is still alive, and out there in the real world."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Buffy said stubbornly as she walked out of the room.

"Buffy why are you doing this?" Willow tries hesitantly. They had to do this carefully or they could totally destroy their friend's mind.

They enter a new room and as Willow prepares to defend the dream version of Dawn she is shocked to see a headstone with Joyce's name on it. Next to it was another marker with the name Bill Nelson. "What is this?" Willow asked in shock.

Buffy just stared at the markers sadly the tiger leaned its head against the blonde. "This is what I do." Buffy said, as if it should explain everything to her friend.

"Who's Bill?" Tara asked worriedly.

"He was TIgra's important person." Buffy explained to the witches even as the Tiger laid its head down mournfully on the grave for a moment.

The group went through another door and found themselves in the Magic Shop of all places. "Why are we here Buffy?" Tara asked encouragingly. Buffy nodded towards another version of herself. "This is where it happened, this is where I realized that I couldn't win. Its when I finally accepted that Glory was too strong for me to beat. And in that second of understanding I just wanted."

"What is it that you wanted?" Tara asked.

"I just wanted it to be over." Buffy explained to the taller blonde. "I'm tired of doing all of this it's just one thing after another with us. If Glory wins."

"Dawn Dies." The other Buffy said mournfully.

"I think Xander and Spike might be right, there's some sort of spell involved in this and you need to snap out of it." Willow said. "I've seen Buffy deal with guilt before and this nothing like how she usually does it."

"So what now?"

"Now we shock her back into reality." Willow said as she drew her hand back and slapped Buffy as hard as possible. "Owchie." She said with a wince as she shook her hand. "Come on, we need to go and save Dawn now. You've carried the weight of the world on your shoulders since high school. And I, I know you didn't ask for this, but ... you do it every day. And so, you wanted out for one second. So what?"

"But what if I can't?" Buffy asked.

"Then Dawn dies for real." Willow said as she turned away from her friend. "Come on Tara, we have a world to save." Tara nodded and followed after the redhead.

Buffy looked confused and looked to the tiger. The large cat nodded and leaped at her.

Willow gasped in alarm only to watch the creature fade and leave a Buffy version of Tigra. "Tara what's happening?" She asked in alarm as her friend changed.

"They're merging," Tara said worriedly. "Her fear of not being strong enough forced the Tigra spirit in this plane to join with her."

"So they are one now?" Willow asked with interest.

Buffy nodded to the witches as she gripped their hands and they led her through the doors of the Magic Box. With a start all of the girls woke up as if they had been sleeping. Tara and Willow grasp the emotionally spent Slayer for a moment letting her have a good cry before the trio get up.

"Come on." Buffy said, wiping her tears away. "We've got to go and save Dawn." The girls nodded their heads in agreement. They quickly found themselves back at the magic box. Each of them had changed their clothes into a variation of their usual clothes and that of their costumed personalities. The Scoobies were many things but costumed vigilantes was not one of them. Buffy had gone from a bikini to wearing leather pants, no shoes, a tube top and leather jacket. Tara had left the bottom part of the costume, but changed into an easy to move in peasant top. Willow had left her costume on since she wasn't sure if her clothes would change if she were to change size or if they needed to be prepared before they tried that.

"Buffy." Giles said in relief as he saw the group enter. Xander and Spike looked up from where they had been checking the weapons. Xander was in some of his leftover clothes from the Initiative while Spike had left his martial arts pants on but had placed his heavy boots and duster on over the rest.

"Giles," Buffy greeted, "word is that you guys found something she said.

"That we did." The watcher said as he opened a book he had been paging through. "All of the rites and ceremonies that Glory will need to do in order to open the portal."

"Uh huh." Buffy said. "So Xander, what's the plan?

"Well as we've said before: You are the plan." Xander said with a grin. "The nose knows after all." He said as he held some shoes that Dawn had left behind one day.

"Right," Buffy said with a grimace. "I'm not using one of Dawn's dirty socks or shoes though no matter how stinky they are."

"Well there's no way I'm going through her dirty clothes." Xander returned quickly.

"Yeah, and if I did that ya'd try and stake me Slayer." Spike pointed out from where he was sitting.

Buffy pouted slightly. "Fine," she grumbled as she took the shoe and took a deep whiff. She grimaced as the scent of her sister filled her senses. "This is so disgusting. Why can't Spike be the one to do this?"

"Watcher is hoping that your connection to the Bit will make it easier for ya to track her." Spike informed her with a smirk. The Slayer glared at the Watcher who was doing his best to ignore her. "Got to say it's nice not having to be used as a glorified blood hound anymore." He added in mockingly.

"Alright let's go." Buffy said as they each gathered the weapons that they were going to need.

"Hang on, I have a little something extra to add to the fight." Willow said as she pressed a remote and Buffy's double came walking out.

"The sex-bot Will's?" Buffy said uncomfortably as she looked at the machine.

"We need everything we got." Willow said.

Can it fight though? Xander questioned.

"Shadowcat finished up the last of the repairs during her breaks. Just in case." Willow assured the others.

"Fine," Buffy reluctantly relented to her friend. "Anya Xander go find the Orb of Dagon it might be useful. The pair nodded as the headed down the stairs. A while later the pair reappeared with the glowing Orb of Dagon that Buffy had found with the monk so long ago.

Xander looked at the others as they were packing the last of their weapons up. Aalright people this one's for the world so let's move out and do this." He ordered as he unslung his shield. The rest of the group nodded as they left the store to once again save the world. Again.


	8. The Tower Battle Part 1

As usual I own nothing in the way of characters tat are used here since they belong to Joss and Marvel.

Its alive. ITS ALIVE. ITS ALIVE! This story ain't dead yet folks.

* * *

><p>Dawn bit back a grumble as she paced back and forth in the empty warehouse that Glory was using as a hideout. The heavy medieval dress that she was wearing slowed her movements somewhat, but she was fairly sure that she could phase the restrictive material off if she needed to. She wouldn't even still be here if it wasn't for the fact that Glory was keeping that kid near her. The threat was rather obvious and cliché, but there was nothing that she could do at the moment either since they were on opposite sides of the room. She really hoped that the others were merely waiting to spring some last minute rescue, so as to insure that the Hellgoddess wasn't able to come up with a new plan. Because as it was, she was completely out of ideas on how it was she was supposed to deal with the problem. Sure she could phase herself to safety, and Glory would go on a godly temper tantrum killing all of the people around them. The fact that they were working for her would matter very little to her. No, she needed to come up with a plan that took into account all of these little things so that they could get everyone out to safety.<p>

She idly noticed that one of the minions had come in and was whispering something in the Hell-Goddesses ear. Whatever he said seemed to make her happy considering the grin that she was now wearing. Considering that what was good to Glory probably wasn't good for her didn't make her any happier.

"Okay, campers, it's almost stab time." Glory said eagerly. "You two, get her." She ordered a pair of her demon hobbits that were standing guard.

The pair nodded and moved toward her. Dawn rolled her eyes as she went into a fighter's stance. If they wanted to kill her then they better be ready to take in some hits f their own before she went down. The monks hesitated for a moment as they saw that the Key appeared to be ready to make her move should they approach her.

"Today you twerps." Glory called out impatiently, her hands on her hips as she tapped her foot in annoyance at yet another delay to her returning to her home.

"At once O Mighty and Destructive One." The lead Demonic Hobbit said as the pair rushed at her.

Dawn was ready for them though as she reached out and caught the outstretched hands of the minions. With a twist she tossed the two demons over her shoulders. The demons slammed face first into the wall.

"Would you idiots quit playing around and get my Key already?" Glory demanded of the monks as they struggled back to their feet.

Dawn turned on them and slammed her elbow into the face of one and backhanded the other one. The monks might follow Glory, but they were useless when it came to fighting as they had no skills or abilities. Against Dawn who had the skills and training of Marvel's Shadowcat downloaded into her brain taking the two figures out had been easy. Even with the restrictive dress on they weren't much of a challenge for her.

"Would somebody bring her along already?" Glory demanded irritably glaring at her minions as if they were intentionally holding her plans up by not bring the Key when she told them to.

"At once oh horrendous one, whom devours all that stand in her way." Another one of the figures said, as he led two of his companions at the teen.

Dawn responded by phasing her leg and performed a kick that shot out of the skirt of the dress and slammed into the face before falling back beneath her skirt. While the other two were trying to figure out how the Key had managed to strike at their leader without messing up her dress she slammed into them. She kneed one of them and phased her hand into the chest of the other squeezing the air out of his right lung for just a second causing the demon to fall down coughing. "You sure that you want to try this?" She asked, as she looked the downed demons over. The five demons grunted as they slowly climbed back to their feet preparing to charge at the girl again.

"Hey, are you guy really that in love with pain?" Dawn questioned as she glared at them. "Just stay down already."

"They simply know who it is that they have to be afraid of Key." An impatient Glory said as she stalked toward the group. "Now hop to it before I start using that slave force out there as punching bags." She ordered. "How far do you bet I could punch one of those meat sacks or even better how about we see just how far I could throw one of them?" Glory said with a feral grin, as she considered all of the ways that she could kill the various people.

Scowling Dawn lowered her arms. The demons took that moment to rush her and grab at her as they began to follow after Glory.

"Much better Key." The Hell-Goddess said approvingly as if she was a troublesome pet. "Come on now, it's time that we were free of this pathetic existence."

Dawn sighed as she was forced towards the rickety looking tower that Glory's slaves had created. "So it wasn't bad enough that you turned them crazy, but then you went and made them into slaves?" She asked in disgust as she recognized some of the people around the building site from when she herself had visited her mom in the hospital.

"Cheap labor kid." Glory returned unrepentantly as she pushed her forward. "Makes it all a lot easier to get done. Besides, who's going to care if the crazies are off doing something or drooling on themselves? This way they at least have one final task to do before the end comes. Which is more than what I can say for a lot of the other worms that live here. It also means I have more money that I can use to spend on shopping." She added brightly.

Dawn had to clench her teeth from snapping out some sort of caustic remark that would likely get her slapped or something similar. The fact that the Queen of the Loonies was saying stuff like that really wasn't making this all that much easier either. By her own words Glory should be helping them do their work.

The pair of them were at the base of the tower just looking up at it. Dawn cringed as she saw the shoddy workmanship. Hanging around Xander had given her a basic knowledge on how things were supposed to go together. The monstrosity that she was looking at looked like some five year old's idea of a construction project, and was in the shapes one would expect to see from a tower of play-dough or pipe cleaners. The fact that Glory was confidently walking toward the thing was even worse.

"Look around kid, look at all of the people here that I can kill that no one will really care about except maybe you." Glory said. "You start fighting me on this and I start having all of their little necks broken or something like that. Now start climbing." She ordered pointing toward a twisted path that led to the top of the tower. Dawn looked like she wanted to say something but kept her mouth shut s she began climbing.

* * *

><p>Buffy scowled as she did her best to follow Dawn's scent through the town. Being as inexperienced as she was, she had led the group over the same area more than a few times as she tried to discern what was current and was old. The fact that Spike was coaching her through the use of her senses was also kind of embarrassing. She had no doubt that when she was feral-like that she could have done the same thing without worrying about back tracking so many times. The fact that Spike could probably pick up the scent and he was letting her do it was also making her already short temper reach its last bit. If she didn't need his help, she probably would have thrown him over a house by now if for no other reason than it would feel good right about now. If they weren't in such a hurry she might still have that.<p>

She stopped near a store and sniffed softly letting all of the scents that she could filter through her enhanced senses. Dawn's was easy enough to find. It was the one that reminded her of evergreens, books, and power. Nearby was another scent, and using the memories she had gained from TIgra she recognized the scent. It smelled of hospitals, cheap perm jobs and upper level clothing. This was Glory's scent, the two scents mixed between each other a lot, meaning the two having come into near contact on more occasions than Buffy would have liked them to. Still, now that she had both of their scents and she knew that she had their scents following them was going to be easy.

"I think I got it." She told the others, as she took off in several leaping bounds. The others took off after the TIgra enhanced Slayer intent on helping their friend as much as possible. Besides if they didn't, then the world would end and that would be bad news for all of them. It was so hard to find a decent picnic spot after an apocalypse went off successfully.

The group found themselves looking at a construction site of some sort that despite the late hour had people running all over the place doing various types of building. "Uh Xander, are there supposed to be people here at this time?" Willow questioned her friend curiously. "Is there like a night shift for construction workers?"

"No Will's there isn't." Xander said with a frown. "Whoever, or whatever is deciding to do this is doing so while breaking more rules than Snyder could make up." He informed the group as he looked toward the rickety tower that was being built in the center of the site.

"Dawn's scent is over there." Buffy told the group pointing a clawed finger to the worksite.

"Then that's where we'll be going Slayer." Spike told the Tiger-Girl as he examined the target even as he lit a cigarette up.

"What he said." Xander said in agreement while the others looked down at the construction site.

"I think it's time we did this X-Man style." Willow said determinedly.

Xander smirked. "I think that I'm liking this idea." Xander returned. It was a well-known fact that if you wanted to know where the X-Men and certain other heroes had been all you had to do was follow the trail destruction that they had left in their wake. That meant that for the group of heroes gathered here tonight all they had to do was destroy the tower/alter or whatever it was that had been built. As soon as that was done then they would hopefully have stopped Glory. If that didn't work all they had to do was to delay her long enough that the time for the ceremony came and went without her trying to kill Dawn. So all they had to do was try and predict what an insane Hell Goddess was going to. Should be a piece of cake in theory. None of them mentioned the likelihood of everything going to plan though. They simply weren't that lucky.

* * *

><p>Dawn glared as she was tied up to the framework tower. "The great and horrendous one shall be here soon." The wrinkled demon said as it then began to retreat.<p>

"You guys are really idiots aren't you?" Dawn questioned the demon curiously. "I mean seriously, I can walk through walls. What makes you think that these ropes are actually going to be able to hold me?" She mocked the group. "Although technically I don't even need to do that." She informed them as she easily slipped the ropes off of her in less time than it had taken to bind her. "those knots were pathetically done. Is there anything that you guys can actually do other than grovel at Glory's feet?" She demanded of the demons indignantly. "It's actually embarrassing to be considered your hostage when you're so pathetic at doing the whole minion part."

"You will stay here and await she who is as devastating and horrid as a thousand days in the sun comes for you." The demons said before they scurried away from the girl that was almost casually mocking them.

"They are rather useless." Doc noted in amusement as he watched them flee from the Key's biting remarks.

"Yeah, but you actually have a brain." Dawn noted as she observed the old demon carefully. What she had said was true. Spike who had mastered playing both sides in the supernatural battle between good and evil had been caught off guard by this demon. Had he known that Doc was in league with Glory she really doubted that he would have brought her to his shop. To manage to fool Spike so completely he had to have lots of brains and skills.

"Don't try to run Key, it won't end well for you." Doc said as he turned his eyes to watching the ground below them. "I imagine that your Slayer will be here soon girl. She is better at last minute rescues. It's a shame that this time she shall not succeed."

Dawn hoped that he was right. She figured that she could take on most of the minions, but Glory was in a class all of her own and had already shrugged the combined power that the Scoobies had gathered off like it was nothing more than mere annoyances.

* * *

><p>"Willow, Tara you gals are up first." Xander ordered the witches. "See if you can't reverse the whole brain suckage thing that she's got going." The two women nodded their heads in agreement as they slipped into the construction site and searched for the Hell-Goddess. While the pair made their way in the others also moved stealthily though the site preparing for the fight. It seemed that Glory and all her minions were pretty sure of their success since they didn't seem to have any guards in place to sound the alarm. They saw that Glory was casually walking through the group, basking in her victory. Now that she had the Key, and it was nearly time to start the ceremony. She obviously didn't think that there would be anything that could stop her, now that she was so close to her victory and returning to her own dimension.<p>

"We need a vessel." Tara said to her lover. "If we try and rip the energy out of Glory without putting it someplace then things could get messy." She warned the redheaded mutant/witch.

"Looks like there's plenty of vessels to choose from." Willow said comfortingly, as she waved her hands at all of the brain sucked people that were wandering around. "This spell will work though right?" She asked worriedly. "I mean it really can take some of her juice."

"If we can do it right." Tara returned to the redhead. This spell was extremely dangerous, but she knew that with both of them they should be able to do it. She was sure that Willow was more than strong enough to manage this spell on her own. If she could just get beyond her insecurities when it came to her own abilities. It helped that they were returning stolen energies to the people that they had been taken from. It would make the spell less dark in nature than if they were trying to take the energy for themselves like Glory did. "Let's do it." She said, and the two witches stepped into view and began chanting.

"What are you two doing here?" A stunned Glory asked in disbelief at seeing the two magic users. She had already won she couldn't understand why these annoyances were still trying to get in her way.

"Fixing things." The witches returned as they finished their spell. They watched as some of the energy was ripped from Glory, and returned to the various people that were surrounding them.

Glory stumbled a bit in surprise at the attack, not having expected an attack of that nature. "That hurt!" She complained, as she steadied herself. "What did you two do to me?" She demanded with a snarl as she glared at the pair of witches that had made her weak somehow.

"We returned what you stole." Tara said weakly. The magic that they had used had been major, and had drained them of a lot of their magical strength. They could still use their other powers, but most of their magic attacks were probably going to be useless against the might of Glory.

"Can we please not do that again?" Willow pleaded with Tara.

"I think so sweetie." Tara returned.

"So your other powers must have faded then?" Glory said with a grin as she stumbled toward the two witches. "Good then I'll just take your brains instead." She said as she moved toward them.

The two witches clasped hands and pulled deeply from their reserves and performed the first bit of joint magic that they had done. A steel girder lifted off of the ground and rushed at Glory slamming into her and sent her flying to the side and into a nearby brick wall where she was embedded into it.

An angry Glory pushed the girder off of her. "Alright now I'm pissed." The Hell-Goddess said as she ripped the ceremonial robe off of her and glared at the pair of witches. "I'm going to drain your brains out and then I'm going to rip your spines out and use them to gut the Key with them and let her blood open the portal."

"Wow, that's some imagery that you've got there." A voice said casually. They all turned to see the familiar form of Buffy Summers standing there at the ready. "I mean I was always more about using the ribcage for a hat, but not bad." She said in an almost casual tone.

"You're here as well huh?" Glory demanded as she glared at the blonde. "Looks like you lost your extra powers as well though." She noted as she saw that the girl was back to her human appearances.

"You could say that." The blonde returned to her cryptically. "You don't seem very well."

"Your little witch bitches," Glory grumbled back, "gave me kind of a headache there. But if you think this is gonna last more than eight seconds."

"I noticed you're talking, whereas in your position, I would attack me." The blonde shot off at her.

"Go guard the girl." Glory ordered, waving the group of demons away. The group nodded and scurried away from the upcoming battle.

"I notice that you're not going all with the blurry anymore." The blonde said.

"That won't be a problem for long, I just need a recharge." Glory returned in defiance.

"It's strange, you're not as blurry with speed as usual either." The blonde said mockingly.

"The witch." Glory blustered.

"It's not her." The blonde returned, as she held up a glowing orb.

"The Dagon Sphere." Glory said while looking nervously at the item that the blonde was displaying.

"I heard it's supposed to repel you. So my guess is ... you probably shouldn't touch it, either." The blonde said before she tosses the glowing artifact at Glory, who caught the relic out of the air by instinct. The sphere lit up and seemed to warp the air around it when it touched Glory's hand. The Hellgoddess winced in pain, and dropped her hand to her side as if burned.

While she was distracted a metal disc came flying through the air and slammed into her causing her to drop the mystical object. The disc flew back and landed in Xander's hands. "Strike." The foreman said with a smirk. "Not sure which is more fun, bowling for pins or bad guys. And Spike thought that my bowling skills were useless." The carpenter turned super soldier boasted.

Glory growled as she rose back to her feet. "You!" She spat at the figure. "You're the normal human that's been getting in my way."

"Yep that's me." Xander said as he gave her a mock bow. "Xander Harris bowler, carpenter and comic book guru extraordinaire. And Spike thought that having those skills was a useless one to have." He said cockily.

"I'm going to crush all of your internal organs and bathe in your remains." Glory returned angrily. "Nobody makes me look like a fool, particularly not some two bit human without any special powers or abilities." She would have continued, except the Slayer appeared next to her and began punching and kicking at her forcing the Hell-Goddess to fall back as an assortment of attacks rained down on her.

* * *

><p>Dawn smirked as she saw that her sister and the others were already mounting their rescue mission. "Well as fun as this hasn't been, I think that this is the part where I need to get off your victim express." She said to the shop owner. "Let's do this again never."<p>

"You forget girl. I have been tasked with insuring that you stay here and are ready for your destiny." Doc said as he looked at the girl. He then drew his knife. "If that means that I need to work on keeping you here then I will. I am sure that you can survive more than one cut if I am careful about how I do it."

Dawn gave her best scared little girl face and made as if she was backing away from the old demon.

Doc nodded his approval as he watched her back away from him. Dawn smirked as she realized how close to the edge she was and took a step that should have sent her over the edge but instead she just started to continue to walk back.

Doc's eyes narrowed as he realized what the girl was trying to do. He blurred and suddenly appeared beside the teenager. "An impressive try." He said as he held the knife at her throat. "You shouldn't have let yourself get overconfident." He lectured to her. "Not that you're going to get a chance to learn from your mistake."

Dawn gasped as she felt the steel against her throat. Despite the fact that she was phased the blade had drawn a thin line of blood. She had forgotten that enchanted weapons could still affect her. This was going to make getting away a lot harder. Maybe she should have waited for Glory to get up here. She doubted that the Hellgoddess would have been smart enough to stop her before she had managed to get away. Heck, it was more likely she could have caused the Goddess of bad perm jobs to pull a Wiley E. Coyote. "Ah Buffy, I could use a rescue anytime now!" She called down to the group that was battling with the Hellgoddess.

* * *

><p>Glory took a pummeling from the blonde seeming unable to anticipate or counter the attacks as they rained down on her. The Slayer was simply too skilled a fighter and Glory was too weak to do anything other than take the hits that were coming down on her. On the other hand she was still more than strong enough to take each and every one of the hits without any real serious damage.<p>

A particular nasty kick sent her flying through a wall. The Hell-Goddess groaned, the addition of the Sphere of Dagon and the Witchy Bitches had really left her reeling, the damage that the blonde was doing to her was actually minor in comparison to what those attacks had done. She needed a brain if she was going to manage to do anything more against the blonde. She looked up from where she was lying to see the girl that she had been using to make the Key follow her orders. Crawling over to the child that was frozen in fear she reached out and pushed her hands into the side of the girl's head. She grinned as she felt new strength come into her body. "Alright, that's more like it." She declared as she rose back to her feet ready to continue the fight now that her powers had been increased. While eating the brat hadn't put her back to full power it was a definite start.

She turned around to see the slayer coming at her as the blonde reared back and punched. Glory caught the incoming fist and smirked at the annoyance that had been getting in her way for the past few months. "So you wanted to see me blur on you huh?" She asked cockily. She performed a series a super-fast blows that staggered her opponent. She then disappeared from sight and reappeared behind her opponent. "Is this the way you wanted it Slayer?" She asked, as she reared back and punched. Glory smirked as she watched the punch blow the head off the body of the annoyance. The body fell and everyone could see the mass of snapping and popping wires and circuits that were now exposed. "A robot!" Glory asked in shock. "Hey did anybody else know that the slayer was a robot?" She questioned as she turned around to look at her minions.

She was met with a fist that slammed into her and sent her flying. Buffy Summers in her Tigra form smirked as she looked at the goddess that had just been slammed in a pile of rubble. "You really need to watch where you're going. She advised mockingly.

Glory looked murderous as she pulled herself out of the rubble. "That's it Slayer, I'm going to turn your hide into a cape." Glory growled as she glared at Buffy. "I've had enough of you and your stupid games getting in my way. It's time to end you once and for all. You forget Slayer, now that I've got the Key you don't have anything to barter with. That means that I can finally kill you like I've been wanting to."

"Was kind of hoping that you wouldn't notice that for a while yet. "Buffy admitted. "And with your whole lack of an attention span I was pretty sure that it would probably get a lot farther than this before you realized it. I knew I shouldn't have let you fight that robot."

Glory grabbed the Slayer and lifted her by the throat before slamming her into a wall, she then threw her to the side as she lost interest in her. The Slayer twisted in the air and landed in a crouch. Glory's hand came up just in time to catch the metal shield that had come at her again. Glory held the shield in both hands and looked up at Xander in annoyance then with a smirk she folded the shield over on itself.

"Aw crap." Xander muttered, as he saw his weapon get dropped to the ground. The heavy duty metal shield now nothing more than a useless hunk of folded metal. He doubted anything short of melting and re-forging it would make it the weapon it used to be. Considering he was a carpenter and not a metal worker that probably wasn't going to happen. Then to add insult to the loss she ground the toe of her shoe into the bits of metal making it even harder to repair. As of this moment it was about as useful a weapon as a rock though.

Guess that it's our turn now Willow said as she, Tara, and Anya moved in. The former demon aimed at the face of their opponent doing her best to keep their opponent blind of what was coming. Willow followed that up with a scream that was disorienting the Hellgoddess. Tara shrunk and flew at Glory firing her bio-blast at the woman. Glory snarled as she tried to avoid the various attacks that she was being subjected to. Even with her toughness she was feeling the various attacks somewhat. She grabbed a metal pole though and tossed it toward Willow and Anya then as Tara got close to her she used her super seed to catch the small wpmanand then tossed her off to the side.

While the others were fighting Glory Spike and Giles were battling the various minions that were guarding the tower in an attempt to at least slow the scoobies down from getting to Dawn. Giles was using the crossbow and firing into the group, while Spike had leaped into their midst and was using a style of fighting that he had never been known for as he blew through the forces that were arrayed against them. Ancient Kung-Fu moves now came as easily to him as if he had been doing them all of his life. Considering what they were fighting this was actually hardly even a test of his capabilities anymore. The vampire flowed through the group as if they weren't even there.

"Spike go help them." Giles ordered seeing that the others were still barely keeping up with Glory. It seemed that the spell had not weakened Glory as much as they had anticipated it would.

The vampire nodded and rushed at Glory from behind he gathered his chi and felt the power of the iron first form and through his more devastating attack. Glory raised her hand and caught the incoming blow. She grimaced a bit, and she had to adjust her footing but she still managed to stop the blow. "Bugger." Spike said as he felt her raise his hand over her head and then swung him over and into the fence.

"Guess it's our turn. again" Buffy said, as she rushed at the Goddess. Her claws primed and at the ready.

"You really think that your gonna do any better this time?" Glory ranted at the girl.

"Hey Glory, question. Have you ever heard of the Fast Ball special?" Buffy asked the Hellgoddess innocently.

"The what?" a confused Glory asked pausing as she tried to understand what it was that the Slayer was talking about now.

"We had to make some modifications to it, but I think we did all right." Buffy said with a smirk. "Please tell us what you think."

The confused Hell Goddess was then struck by a giant metal wrecking ball. Xander climbed out of the cab and joined Buffy as the two moved in. as soon as they got close they saw the figure climbing back to her feet. "You hit her high I'll hit her low." Xander commanded suggested to his friend. The Slayer nodded and the pair struck. Buffy leaped and flipped in the air landing on Glory's shoulders and started clawing at her face. Xander meanwhile came up behind her and slammed both of his feet into Glory's knee forcing her legs to bend.

Buffy used the change of stance to flip off of Glory the force of her kicking off making Glory face plant into the ground. "Any idea how long we got to keep her down here?" Buffy questioned curiously as she watched the figure.

"Considering the fact all we've managed to do is annoy her I'm thinking as long as we've done is a miracle." Xander returned to his friend. "Besides, timing for mystical events is more a Giles question than a Xander question even when said Xander has Captain America downloaded into his brain." He didn't mention the fact that the others all appeared to have been beaten in their first assault against her.

"Yo Glory." Xander called out waving towards the figure. "Come on, let's see if you can fight me now. I mean now that I don't have a shield maybe you'll get lucky." Xander taunted the lunatic. "Since you obviously couldn't fight me on even terms that is." He added in to her.

"I'll destroy you." Glory said as she remembered the rather humiliating way that she had fought against the human. Since he no longer had a shield that could stand up to her blows though, she figured that it would be easy enough to deal with him now. Moving forward she stretched her arm out intent on destroying him for daring to get in her way. Xander was ready for her rather sloppy and uncoordinated brawler style of combat and managed to dodge the incoming blow. He then kicked at her before falling back. Glory glared at the human angry that he had managed to score a hit even if it hadn't done anything. She tried grabbing at him again, but Xander was able to figure out what she was going to do before she did it. He led her away from the tower and towards the various tools. The carpenter smirked in glee as he realized where they were. "Alright, now you're in my house." Xander said, as he spun away from the woman and grabbed two weapons. "Eat this." He said, before he raised his weapons and repeatedly squeezed on the triggers.

Glory glared as she felt the nails from the nail gun hit her. She raised her hand to her face and while some of them scraped her very few of the hundred odd nails that he had fired actually punctured her skin. "Is that all you got?" She demanded, as she lowered her arms as the ammo ran out. They both glanced down at her feet where they saw a pile of broken and bent nails at her feet.

"Okay, so not what I was hoping for." Xander admitted somewhat nervously as he eyed the being before him.

"Hey Glory!" Buffy said, as she and Spike appeared. Spike with a crow bar and Buffy with a sledge hammer. The two struck, and watched in frustration as the hammerhead cracked and the crowbar bent from hitting Glory. The blows had hurt her, but they couldn't repeat the attacks either. The three then began a dance around Glory where one would draw the hell god's attention while the other two would prepare for stronger attacks. Glory was covered in various scratches and minor cuts and bruises that were already healing over. She directed a punch at Spike, and he struck various pressure points in the arm as hard as he could. While she was pulling back her now numb limb. Xander and Buffy ran at her with a heavy wire cable and tangled her in it. Glory stretched her limbs, and ripped it only for Xander to appear over her with a jackhammer. He slammed it into her and started the device against her. Glory yelped, but a minute later she had the makeshift weapon and jerked it away from Xander and slammed it into a wall only for it to shatter when it hit the ground. Buffy moved in next with a two by four in either hand slamming both pieces of wood into her. The wood shattered and Buffy moved in to stab her only for Glory to grab the Slayer by the arms and lift her up and slam her onto a table. Spike followed up with two 3 pound mini sledge hammers. The vampire was forced to use the hammers to block a punch though as Glory spun around. The useless lumps of metal were thrown at Glory who caught them and threw them back. Spike was caught off guard and found the hammers knocking the wind out of him and breaking some ribs as well.

Xander leaped at GLory and brought a drill with a long bit and rammed it into her and held the power button. There was a whirring sound as the drill started and sparks flew up and then the giant bit broke.

"Your annoying me." Glory said as she pushed Xander with one hand lifting him up and sending him flying some twenty feet away. "Now, I have more things to do and more impressive opponents to fight." She said as she made her way away from the group and headed toward the tower.

Buffy leaped in front of her and Glory grabbed the s;ayer by the throat and lifted her up. The Hellgoddess had obviously had as much of the distractions that the group represented as she could stand and was going to kill anyone else that tried to get in her way to her Key and her way home.

The others climbed to their feet while Glory held Buffy in a Darth Vader strangle hold. Xander shifted in preparedness as he look at the Hellgoddess. He really didn't like their odds, in a straight up match she had proven over and over that she was more than a match for them powers or not. Heck they had totaled an entire construction site and all they had managed to do was tire themselves and cause minor damage to her. If Glory really did decide to kill Buffy she would take out their major hitter and force them to try and avenge their friend.

"You still just don't get it do you?" Glory asked as she glared at the group that was doing everything that they could to stop her. "No matter what it is that you do I'm going to win. You can be other people or yourselves but I am always the winner." She said with a sneer as she glared at the group. She shook the struggling Slayer a few times to emphasize her superiority before throwing her to the ground at their feet. "I mean seriously, look around this place. All you've done so far is to slow me down some. Even with all of the extra power that you have your still beneath me. All you've done is move up from being ants to little puppies that bark all day, but are more annoying and aggravating than an actual threat. Sure you had a few lucky shots here and there but you forgot that I'm a God baby and as a God I can take you out whenever I want and there's nothing that you can do."

"Buffy! I could some help up here!" Dawn said as she dodged the blade that Doc was wielding. The demon seemed to think that now was the perfect time to make a Dawn shish kabob.

"I thought that she could go ghosty?" Buffy rasped with worry as she looked up at her sister. "Why isn't she going ghosty?" she questioned Xander while she rubbed her bruised throat.

Good question. Willow said in agreement.

"Oi Lil Bit phase!" Spike shouted.

"He's got a magic knife Xander!" Dawn shouted down at them figuring he would be able to explain things the best. She ducked another jab and kicked him in the gut. The demon grimaced but didn't retreat.

"Of course he's got a magic knife." Xander muttered in annoyance. "Enchanted weapons are one of the few things that can still affect her when she's like that Buff." He explained to his friend.

"Oh right." Buffy said in annoyance.

"It would appear to be time. You must fulfill your destiny." Doc proclaimed as he sliced at the girl. Dawn began doing her best to dodge the blade as he came at her she her fist into his face causing him to stumble back. The old demon shook off the effects of the blow and began moving in at her again.

"Sorry, Dawn spat at him, "but us Summer's don't believe in things like prophecy and destiny. At least not ones that we can't destroy or screw over." She added in with a smirk.

"As you see I've already won by the time you get up there I'll already be heading back into my world." Glory crowed at the group of fighters. "All I have to do now is get up there and bleed the Key dry and I'm on my way home." She said excitedly.

"Not if we stop you." Buffy returned coolly, as she slowly climbed back to her feet.

Glory scoffed at the Slayer and would have continued ranting except for the fact that a metal disc slammed into the back of her head causing her to stumble. The disc the clanged off of a pipe before landing in Xander's hands.

"Hey I recognize this." Xander mumbled as he turned the shield over in surprise, the others ignored him though as they were focusing on the source of where the attack had come from.

"We've heard stories like that before Glorificus." A powerful voice echoed at the Godess. Everyone turned to see a small portal that was above their heads closing and a group of figures falling out only to be stopped as an invisible force grabbed them so that they were hovering in the air.

"You." Glory growled as she recognized the group that was now facing them. More than half of the problems that she had dealt with were because of these figures.

There standing as proud as ever were the heroes that the Scoobies had dressed as. Captain America, Tigra, Shadowcat, Wasp, Siryn. Reinforcements had Assembled to help the Scoobies in their battle with Glory.


	9. Tower Battle II

Well I finally got this part in and finished. The usual disclaimer here folks. I don't own the BTVS Characters as they belong to Whedon. The MARVEL ones belong to well MARVEL.

Special Note of thanks for CAG7 for pointing out that I hadn't placed this chapter here despite having finished it in May.

* * *

><p>The Scoobies, minions, Glory, and the remaining surviving people watched in awe as the group of heroes from another dimension hovered over their heads. Each of them were dressed in their uniforms which looked like combinations of silk, spandex, and leather armor. They also noticed that they were moving downward at a slow and steady pace giving them the time to examine the entire situation. It also made their entrance all that more impressive to those watching their descent. Many people's jaws dropped in awe at the imposing sight that the group made as they came closer to the ground.<p>

"Siryn help Shadowcat, get up to the younger Summers girl." Captain America ordered a redheaded young woman in a green and gold uniform. "Return back to us as soon as possible though."

The woman nodded as she grabbed onto a girl in blue and screamed out lifting the two of them into the air as they rose upward and headed for the top of the tower. Following along behind them was a purple dragon who was preparing several mouthfuls of fire in readiness for the upcoming fight.

As soon as the pair left the group, the others began falling to the ground. Shadowcat who was no longer phasing them had left them to a more gravitational means of getting to the ground. Tigra landed in a crouch and then caught Dazzler, while Captain America and Iron Fist caught onto the tower and used the odd construction as a stepladder to the ground, Wasp on the other hand merely shrunk and flew to the ground before resizing so that she could stand alongside of her teammates.

Glory looked uncertain she was now surrounded by two groups of heroes. The dozen figures were spreading out so that they could take her on. While she doubted that any one of them could actually hurt her, even with their combined might none of them had the power to stand up for long against her. She was simply to powerful and great for anyone to manage to defeat her. Still, it would take time and would likely be the cause of a number of frustrations. It seemed that it was time to show these mortals what happened when one messed around with a God though. It was time to show them what it meant to challenge a God.

Captain America silently unslung a second shield off of his back and fixed it to his arm. The Hellgoddess looked particularly displeased at seeing that there were now two of the shields that could withstand even her massive strength. The Hellgoddess was unused to having weapons that could be used against her. The fact that her enemies had two such weapons was more than a bit disconcerting for her. He then raised one of the shields over his head. "Avengers Assemble!" He called out, causing both groups to tense in readiness. "Take her down and keep Dawn safe." He called out to the others. The others nodded, and the next thing Glory knew she was being assaulted from numerous side from various attacks. Anya, Dazzler and Willow all started their assault while the combined forces dodged in and out of striking at her before moving out of the way so that another member could try their hand against her.

* * *

><p>A screaming Siryn and Lockheed dive bombed the tower where Dawn and Doc were currently playing their game of cat and mouse. "Looks like you could use a hand." Shadowcat noted, as she fell through the demon and landed on the other side. The move caught Doc by surprise, and the inattention was all that Lockheed needed to spit the mouthful of flames at him. Doc tried to move out of the way, only to receive a punch to his ribs and when he grabbed at them he received a kick to his chest forcing him back up. The demon scowled as he righted himself after the surprise attacks as he tried to figure out his next move. This part of the tower was narrow, meaning that people could only move forwards or backwards and that there was no room to walk side by side. When he had been facing off against the Key this had helped him, as it meant that the number of exits that the girl could use were limited even with her ability to ghost through things. Now that they had a numerical advantage, it was nowhere near as easy. What's more, the miniature dragon made it even harder. He would have to be exceptionally wary when facing off with these two sprite like beings.<p>

"Go help the others, we should be enough to handle this guy." Dawn told Siryn. "Besides, its more important that we stop her right now than it is to help me out."

"Are ye sure bout that lass?" Siryn questioned the girl. "Wouldn't it be bettah if ye left?"

"Would you let someone else fight a fight that concerned you so much?" Dawn questioned the Irish born mutant.

"Trust us, we got this one covered." Shadowcat told the other mutant even as she focused on their opponent.

"Ah understand." Siryn returned, as she accepted the decision that the mutant Key had decided on. "Good luck ta de both oh ya." She told them as she then dive bombed at Glory.

"Okay then, let's get this thing started. Dawn said as she settled into a ninjutusu stance. Kitty nodded as she settled into a similar stance on the other side of the demon. The two girls ignored the dragon that was flying over their heads ready to perform a strafing run should he need to. Instead they focused on the demon that was standing between them. Neither of them were about to let him cut Dawn, and open the portal that would destroy this world and countless others if they allowed him to carry through with Glory's plan.

* * *

><p>"So tell me," Xander idly spoke, "why in all of the places in the multiverse would you guys would actually choose to come here?" He asked the real Captain America curiously, as the two waited for the perfect moment in which to launch their own attacks against the Hellgoddess. Glory was currently swinging uselessly against Buffy and Tigra who were kicking and punching the figure without mercy. "Don'tet me wrong wrong I'm glad you're all here. I mean, if you guys were looking for good vacation spots I'm thinking that you overshot your mark by a good bit is all."<p>

"You remind me of Spider-Man." Captain America returned coolly, as he watched the fight between the Hellgoddess and the heroes play itself out. "Besides, would you wait around on your hands when there's something that you could do about the destruction of the multiverse?" He asked him rather knowingly.

"Point taken." Xander admitted, wincing as he watched the two cat women get thrown into a pile of rocks. Waving their hands the tacticians sent Spike and Iron Fist into the fight. The two kung-fu experts moved around the crazed woman. Spike was aiming at her middle, while Iron Fist was making leaping attacks the focused on the head. Despite their movements though, everyone could see that they were having less effect with their human strength blows. Spike was causing more damage with his vampire power, but it still wasn't enough. Rather than waste their time on ineffectual attacks the two started focusing on hitting special areas like nerves and tendons. While Glory didn't appear to be hurt by the blows, it was likely that later on the hits in these vulnerable areas would slow her down enough to give them the chance that they needed.

"So, I'm wondering, where you managed to get the shield." Xander asked, as he hefted the shield that looked like a replica of Captain America's shield that the man wore strapped to his own arm. The weight was nearly perfect as far as Xander could tell.

"John Walker wasn't using it, and we thought that you might have a bit more need for it at the moment." Captain America explained, the two figures rose from their hiding spots and launched their shields at the exact same time. Captain America's shield bounced off a pole then a bulldozer before striking Glory in the back of the head while Xander had chosen a more direct route and slung it at her gut.

Glory was caught off guard as the shields performed a one two combo on her body. Glory looked up to see the two figures catch their shields. It was now while she was stunned that she could see the two group as they intermingled with each other. There were the heroes from another world in their brightly colored outfits that made them as much as targets as anything else. Then there were the native heroes of this dimension that were dressed in dark and worn clothes. The boy with a shield was wearing construction clothes, the Slayer was in biker shorts and sports bra, the two witches were wearing dresses, and Anyanaka was wearing jeans and a blouse.

Willow and Siryn had taken to the air and were doing their best to keep back as they sent their sonic screams at Glory. The Goddess grimaced as she was being pounded by near identical sonic assaults. The main difference was the distance in from where they were attacking from. For the two redheads though it was rather easy, because thanks to Siryn's father they were used to fighting alongside of someone that had the same type of attack. The two attacks were making it hard for Glory to keep upright. Xander and Captain America each threw a shield and struck her in the ribs on either side. The shields then bounced back into their hands. Tigra and Buffy moved in next, and each of them slammed a foot into her back. She was sent stumbling forward, only to be met by the enhanced chi attacks of Spike and Iron Fist. The blows sent her flying back into a pile of scrap metal. Dazzler and Anya began to use their laser beams to weld the metal around the hellgoddess. Glory strained for a minute before the confining metal cracked and freed her. Tara and Wasp moved in, each of them flying into an ear and blasting an eardrum. Glory fell to her knees in pain as she tried to understand all of the pain that she was feeling. She didn't even notice, as the two small heroes flew out.

"Anyone else thinking that was to easy?" Xander asked, as he warily watched Glory to see what she would try next.

"No argument." Buffy agreed with him as she watched the figure.

"Easy people she's down." Captain America ordered holding his hand up to stop them from doing something rash. "You've obviously done more damage to her than you thought." He reasoned with them.

"If that was true, wouldn't she have changed to her other form?" Tara asked the man curiously.

"Damn, caught onto that did you?" Glory grumbled as she unsteadily rose back to her feet. Her eyes flashed with anger and madness as she stared at the beings that were preventing her from getting back to where she belonged. "You may have caught me by surprise last time, but I'm going to destroy all of you this time." She promised the group.

"Dawn, Shadowcat, drop, she doesn't have a hostage anymore." Buffy called up to the group that was fighting up above them. The two mutant girls nodded as they each jumped off opposite sides of the metal girder and fell towards the ground and disappeared beneath the ground. Doc could only stare at where they had been.

"My Key." Glory wailed, as she watched the two girls get swallowed by the earth. "What did you do to my Key?" She demanded of the group. "I have been stuck on this worthless mudball for way to long and My Key, which happens to belong to me, I might add. Its the only thing that can get me home, and you just made it vanish." She created a fist and slammed it into the ground causing the surrounding earth to crack beneath her. "Where is my key?" She demanded hysterically, as she began senselessly pounding the ground in her search for the missing mystical being that was her ticket home.

"Right here." Two voices spoke, as twin sets of hands grabbed Glory by her arms and pulled her downward. A moment later two heads popped up out of the ground.

"Hey." Dawn chirped waving at the group.

"Please tell me that stopped her." Wasp pleaded as she looked at the spot where the ground was now mangled from the series of blows it had suffered. Blows that could just as easily had one of them on the opposite end of.

"I wish." Kitty grumbled. "There's a lot of underground tunnels underneath this place though."

"Yeah, they run under the entire town actually." Buffy piped in knowingly. "It wouldn't surprise me to know that a vampire was buried upside down just so that he could avoid me."

"Anyways, we may have slowed her down though." Dawn suggested hopefully. They all paused as they saw a fist slam back up in the air. "Then again I could be mistaken." She admitted, as she saw a second hand punch through and then begin to push a head up out of the ground.

"Hey Tigra." Buffy called.

"Yes?" The werecat asked.

"How long has it been since you've played wack-a-mole?" The Slayer asked the other member of the group.

The werecat grinned as the pair then rushed towards the head and flipped through the air . As the rest of Glory's body began to push up out of the ground. The two figures landed with their full weight on her shoulders sucking them both down with her.

"We have to go after them." Captain America told the others.

"Already ahead of you on that one." Xander returned as Willow and Tara made a few gestures and mumbled some words and the ground ripped open. "Time to follow Alice down the rabbit hole." He declared, as he leaped downward. The other members of the Scoobies nodded their heads in agreement as they leaped after their friend.

"Definitely like Spider-Man." Iron Fist noted before the heroes charged after the other group.

The heroes landed in the cavern to see the two mystically enhanced warriors doing their best to keep the Hellgoddess busy from trying to claim her prize. Her body was simply to tough for any one of them to beat into submission though. They needed a method that would allow them to contain her until the time of alignment was over. It was the only way that they could manage to win against such odds.

'So tell me," Xander questioned his costumed persona, "why is it that when you guys were mounting up you decided to leave most of the big guns behind? I mean personally I'm glad your here, but I wouldn't object to having some of your heavier hitters here either. You know people like Hulk, Thor, Hercules, Iron Man, Power Man, maybe Wolverine and some of his buddies in the X-Men. Heck, I wouldn't have said no to help from Doom when you consider how much we were losing before you guys showed up." He added in to him. It was only the addition of the other heroes that was allowing them to still be going as it was.

"We considered it." Captain America admitted to the young man. "Dr. Strange told us that it would make the spell all that much harder for him to accomplish. Something to do with the fact that our souls or essences knew the path and would make the travel all that much easier. He also told us that if some of the others had come they would have diluted the feeling. It took us a while to find you as it was."

"Still wouldn't mind having the Hulk and Thor to sic on her though." Xander pointed out to the other man.

"It would make things easier." Captain America agreed. "If it was easy though, then anybody could do it. That's what makes us different."

"Speaking of, where is the doc? Having someone with his mojo would be pretty useful right now." Xander added in. Having a major magic user to bring against Glory could really even the odds in their favor.

"He's holding the door for us. He's also on standby incase we don't manage to stop her from ending this world." Cap explained. "If we don't do it, then the "Big Guns" like him will deal with

trying to contain the destruction Glory's portal may cause as best as possible. He says it will still cause a lot of damage though. Because unlike most portals, this one will rip holes through every universe between it and her dimension, causing who know what kind of destruction and the side effects could be equally disastrous through all realities that it passes through. That's without counting the fact that beings and creatures may even slip through the tear. Its up to us to keep her away from ripping through the multiverse."

"There are other ways to stop the Beast, soldier. Ways that do not put the very fabric of reality at risk." A voice noted to the pair. The two men turned around warily, and found themselves facing what looked like about a hundred different knights complete in medieval armor weaponry. Their gear was tarnished from use though.

The two men held their bodies loosely as they tried to figure how these new arrivals figured into this. The knights hd been seen a few other times sticking to the background before this. The fact that they were now involving themselves could be very good or very bad. Depending on how they decided to do things.

"And you guys are?" Xander asked them curiously.

"We are The Knights of Byzantium." The apparent leader explained to the two men. "We are the arm that is dedicated to the destruction of the Beast known as Glorificus."

"So your against Glory? Cool." Xander noted with relief, glad that she hadn't had an extra side of minions that they hadn't known about. More people to fight was really not what they needed to deal with at the moment. If they were against Glory though, he was okay with them being here.

"Where is the Key?" The leader demanded. "We must make sure that the Beast cannot get at it."

"She's fighting Glory." Xander explained nodding to where Dawn and Shadowcat were luring Glory away from the others.

"You put her on the front lines of this battle?" The figure asked in disgust. Are you insane, or just incompetent?"

"Not like we have the numbers really. Besides she's a Summer's woman, and they have this crazy idea that they need to fight." Xander tried to explain to the man.

"Knights of Byzantium, you know your duty." The leader shouted to the gathered warriors. As he was now ignoring the two figures before him. "Destroy the Key, so that the Beast cannot use it and end this world and those like it. Move aside warriors we shall finish this." He ordered the pair.

Xander and Captain America had taken defensive stances. "We can't allow that." Cap told the man. "We can't allow you to just kill someone."

"This is the last chance that we have though." The leader spat back at the pair. "Destroying the Key's vessel will make it so that the world will be safe." The man reasoned back at them. "We are doing this for the whole world. It is not as if we are destroying an actual living being, surely you must be aware by now she is just a magical construct. All we want is to destroy the false being that is amongst your ranks."

"Not happening tin man." Xander returned, as he held the shield at the ready. "You want the Dawnster, then you got to go through me." He explained to the group of knights he had been all set to welcome a minute ago.

"Us, Xander." Captain America told his companion as he took his own stance. Some of the feelings of family that Xander felt towards the various members of the Scoobies had come across during the possession. He idly wondered how Logan would feel to him being close to one of his girls.

"You think that the two of you can hope to stand against all of us?" The man demanded, as held his sword at the ready. "We are dedicated to seeing this through, you can not match the feelings that we have in seeing our mission done."

"Why don't you go and do something like tearing down that tower while we deal with this mess." Xander returned to him.

The man frowned at the Demon Hunter. "Warriors forward." He ordered, waving his sword.

Several beams of light erupted around the men as Anya joined Xander and Captain America.

"Lets do it then." Captain America returned, as he raised his shield and deflected an incoming sword and then delivered a punch that sent the armored warrior flying into his fellow warriors. "Just remember that you are the ones that started this fight." He warned the Knights of Byzantium.

"Right behind ya Cap." Xander replied, as he brought his shield arm down on the arm of a man with an ax. He ignored the sound of metal crashing into metal, and what he was fairly sure was the sound of breaking bone. Snatching the knights weapon out of the air, he swung it and brought it down on the helmet of another warrior while lashing out with a foot that tripped several more knights. "Here's a question though, if we're fighting these guys, are we technically fighting on the same side as Glory?" He questioned the WWII veteran from another reality. And how strange was his life when that actually made sense?

"Not as long as the others are keeping her busy while we fight them." Captain America replied, as he slammed the shield into the face of another knight. He was worried though. These Knights had the numbers on them, and if nothing else they might be able to wear the them down. Their one saving grace seemed to be that they lacked in supernatural or technological enhancements. It made fighting them easier, since they lacked any sort of edge. They did have some spell casters though from seeing some men in the back muttering things. There was no telling what they were doing though, and they needed to deal with them before they became a problem. "We need to stop them." He advised, waving to the group in the group in back. "Pincher maneuver." He ordered the carpenter.

"Right." Xander returned, as he knelt down with his shield raised up over his head.

Captain America nodded his understanding and ran at the the boy placing his foot firmly on the shield. Xander then rose and pushed upward even as Steve jumped up. The efforts sent him flying into the air. As he twisted in the air, he threw his shield and the round disc slammed pinto two of the magic users. He landed alongside of another pair and bashed their heads together. He caught up his shield out of the air and looked at the knights that now had to deal with a super soldier on either side of them. Splitting their focus they now had a chance of stopping the group before they could manage to get past them. When you add in the support fire that Anya was providing for them, there was a chance that they would manage to get this one done without any problems. As long as the others could contain Glory while they were fighting with the Knights of Byzantium that is.

Xander couldn't help the smile on his face as he fought to keep the knights back. This was in part what he had always wanted to be. One of the front line fighters capable of holding his own against the forces that threatened the people he loved. He now had the power to be the fighter he had always wanted to be. He ducked a sword, deflected an ax, and sent two more knights and their armor to the scrap pile. Dropping to the ground he swept the legs out from under another, and and placed a heavy kick into the gut of the guy send him tumbling back. It was so exhilarating and like nothing he had ever felt. This was tons better than his possession as a soldier or the hyena incident, as he wasn't being controlled by instincts or by the thoughts of another. It was him in the drivers seat and him kicking ass. Now if only Glory would die or whatever, things would be perfect.

Captain America grunted as he lifted one of the knights and swung him around using him as a flail to knock more of the men away. He had fought people like this more times than he liked to think. In a numbers game like this you needed skill as well as others things to get that edge. He caught a sword on the edge of his shield and looked at the man that was standing against him. It was the leader of the group.

"Are you mad? The longer that the Key is around, the more likely it is that the Beast will take it and open a doorway and destroy this reality and many more. You are aiding the Beast itself with your actions." The knight snarled angrily, as he made several slashing attacks at the hero that was getting in their way. "The only way that we can be sure that the Key is not a threat to us, is by destroying its vessel."

"So what, you'll just kill an innocent because of what's in her blood and what she has the potential to do?" Captain America demanded of the man as he grabbed the sword arm and broke the wrist. Normally he didn't get much pleasure out of inflicting pain on his opponents unless they were Red Skull or Baron Zemo. The feel of this man's arm breaking left him with grim satisfaction though. He brought his knee into his gut knocking all of the air out of his lungs and then released his hold on him.

The man gasped and fell to his knees. "You think that this is going to stop us?" He rasped out as he cradled his injured arm. "We are but the advance group. There are thousands of us all over the world."

"But they're out there, while the real fight is here." Captain America returned as he stood over the fallen knight. "You could have made a different choice tonight. You could have stood and fought with us instead of against us. If you had, our chances of winning would have gone up even more. Look at the way they're fighting her even now." He noted nodding towards where Glory was busy warding off the various fighters that were attacking her. One moment she was swinging at Buffy, only for her bounce away as Iron Fist relieved a blow to her back, Tigra then knocked her off balance as Dazzler, Willow, and Siryn, blasted away at her and Wasp and Tara were making small strafing runs at Glory keeping her from focusing on any of the others. Shadowcat and Dawn were also making lightning like strikes against the woman by pulling her down into the ground a bit only for the Hellgoddess to rip her legs free from the earth. The time though was being used to set up the next series of attacks. "You and your people wasted the chance to be a part of something that was even greater than any one of could have ever hoped to be. You could have been there and saved the world. We're not just fighting for one world we're fighting for the multiverse here." He reprimanded the man in annoyance.

"All the more reason for us to destroy the Key and its Host before the Beast manages to get its hands on it." The Knight growled back at him in defiance. "I swore an oath, and now I must do my duty. Even if it does cost me my life."

Captain America merely shook his head at the man. "Soldier somewhere along the line you lost track of what the real meaning behind duty and devotion are. You no longer see what the mission is." He then slammed the man over the side of the head with his shield. He turned to look at Xander who was finishing up with some of the last of the knights. Other than the handful that had slipped by them and attacked Shadowcat and Dawn it looked like they had dealt with them all.

"Ready for the boss fight now?" Xander asked the Sentinel of Liberty with a grin, as he nodded to where the others were keeping Glory busy.

"Let's go." Captain America returned, and the two men began charging at the Hellgoddess. "Any idea how much longer we'll need to keep her busy." He asked curiously.

"Not really." Xander admitted as he jumped over the unconscious forms of the knights. Was usually go with the tactic of keep hitting them till they stop or we can't hit them anymore. Besides I'm usually the hold the extra weapons or cause a distraction guy than the hitting guy. Time things with magic could be anywhere from 7 minutes to 7 years."

"So hope that we can keep her busy with a time limit that we don't even really know." Captain America noted. "It's not as if there was anything else we had to worry about anyways."

"Welcome to Sunnydale along with the crazy timing that things have." Xander joked. "Sorry about making you guys wait, we had to deal with some party crashers." He explained to the others, as they joined the others as they were preparing to make another run at Glory.

"Yeah some of them got through and took some potshots at Dawnie." Buffy returned to the two men with a growl. Said knight looked as if they had been picked up and tossed as far as the feline heroines could punt them.

"The time for this is over, we must deal with this dark one." Iron Fist advised the others, as he looked at the Hellgoddess. "She is far from being beaten by us."

"Right lets do our best." Wasp agreed optimistically.

"Wasp, Tara keep distracting her, the less focused she is the better." Cap ordered.

Siryn, Willow I want each of you to try and focus on one eardrum and see if you can't make it burst." Xander told the pair of redheads,

Cap nodded his agreement with that. "Shadowcat, Dawn, continue with trying to trap her, even if all its doing is slowing her down."

Iron Fist, Spike I want the two of you to charge your fists up. While your individual hits aren't doing much, maybe the combined power will." Xander commanded the two figures. The martial artists nodded their agreement, and pulled back to watch the others.

Captain America turned to look at the muscle of the team. "Tigra, Buffy, the two of you are still our main hitters, try and keep hitting her. Maybe the pair of you can wear her down." The feline heroines nodded nodded their heads in understanding and ran at her.

"Anya, Dazzler, gather as much noise as you can and then blast her to kingdom come." Xander told the two blondes.

Captain America watched the fighters carefully as they took their positions. Having the same powers and memories was good, in the fact that they could anticipate what the other was likely to do. On the other hand, they were likely to try and go for the exact same attack if they weren't careful. This was a time that a telepath to help coordinate their attacks would have been useful. While the Avengers didn't normally have telepaths, they were familiar enough with them and the advantages that they gave in combat situations like these.

"Keep her away from the knights." He added, "she might try and use them for food." The others nodded their understanding. That had been one of the nice things about being down here, there had been a lot less food for Glory. Thanks to the Knights though, she now had a chance to regain her strength if they weren't careful. For everything that seemed to work for them, another seemed to either go wrong or lead to a new problem.

He watched as the two feline fighters were caught by the much faster Hellgod and tossed through several fallen rocks.

"We need something else to slow her down with." Xander suggested.

"Any ideas?"

"We bring the cavern down on top of her." Xander suggested.

"And the knights?" Captain America asked, nodding towards the downed figures.

"Bunch them together, and hope none of them get in the way when we bring the roof down on her." Xander returned to the man.

"We don't have a lot of options." Cap admitted after a moment of hesitation. "Do it." He ordered.

Xander nodded as he began throwing his shield hitting various supports that were holding the cavern up. While he wasn't a demolitions expert, he knew enough about what held a room together to bring it down on their head if he needed to.

Buffy managed to get right up with the Hellgoddess, and the pair exchanged blows. She even snatched Cap's shield out of the air and then slammed it into the face of the higher being. Glory stumbled back, her face became enraged. She swung her fist back at the Slayer. Buffy raised the shield, and there was an echoing thump as the inhuman super powered fist slammed into the shield. The blow lifted the Slayer off of her feet and sent her flying to land at the feet of the patriotic soldier. "Um ow." She complained as she flipped back to her feet.

"You're lucky you had that." Cap noted, as he took the shield from her.

"Tell me about it."Buffy muttered. "How do you manage to not go flying every time that you get hit?" She asked, as she rolled the shoulder she had landed on.

"I use the attacks to help me decide my moves, and go with the flow sort of thing." The man explained to her with a knowing smile. "It takes a bit of time to get used to. The fact that the shield has certain elements that help dull the power of the blows helps as well." He returned to her. "Had this been regular steel though, its likely that she would have punched right through it and you."

"Wonderful imagery you got there." Buffy returned to him dryly. "It makes me wonder why you decided against the career path as a motivational speaker though." She joked at him. "I'm sure that you would have been amazing at it."

Captain America shook his head at the girl. It seemed like she preferred to deal with stress with jokes and quips as well. "Xander, are we ready?" He questioned, turning to look at the young man.

"I think so. Siryn, Willow time to play echo." He told the two redheads. The women nodded and rose slightly overhead and changed the target and pitch of their yells. Their screams hit the walls, the ceiling held for a moment before it all came tumbling down on them. The heroes gathered around the pair of phase shifters, who pulled them all out of the ground and back on top and alongside of the tower.

"Do ye think dat she survived?" Siryn questioned, as she looked at the ground that they had just pulled themselves out of. There was now several tons worth of dirt and construction equipment piled over her.

"I sure hope so." Tara returned. "I'm not sure that I want to find out what happens if not."

"There are a few spells we could set up just in case she tries something else." Willow suggested. She held a notecard and showed it to the other witch. Tara studied it for a moment before nodding. "This looks like it might work." She agreed with the other girl. Willow seemed to actually brighten up at the praise that she had just received from that.

"You realize that she's gonna be mighty pissed when she digs her way out of there right?" Spike questioned idly, as he lit a cigarette up and took a deep pull of it before releasing a cloud of smoke out. Iron Fist waved the smoke away from him in annoyance. The vampire actually seemed to take pleasure in annoying the man whose abilities that he had copied.

Buffy nodded her head. "As long as she does it sometime after whatever magical time this is, I'm alright with that." She returned to the vampire. "After that we can try and beat each other apart. When the multi-verse isn't in some kind of danger from what she's doing to it." She added in with a smile.

"Seems like a reasonable idea." Wasp agreed, as she returned to normal size. "Have to wonder if you weren't meant to fail this one though. I mean seriously, you were kind of fighting against a stacked deck here." She pointed out to the others. "Her power levels are way beyond anything else that you seem to have around here."

"Story of our lives." Willow told the woman. "You should have seen us when we had to deal with things like the Master or the Mayor. Trust me so not fun."

"Yeah, and they don't even accept payment for risking their lives for what they do here." Anya piped in. "Nor are they already rich, or have good paying jobs on the side." She grumbled. "The only advantage that we have is Giles and he doesn't have the kind of money it would take to finance a war either. At least not for very long."

"I see." Shadowcat replied.

"They are all very good at giving their significant others orgasms though. In fact, I bet anyone of them would be willing to give you a thank you orgasm if you asked them to." She told Captain America rather bluntly. "We might even convince Xander or Spike if that's the way that you prefer. Xander's a Viking in the sack, and that was before he got powers. He might be a demigod now." She mused to herself. "I'll have to be sure and judge his performance levels so that I can tell you what level he's at." She declared to them all rather loudly.

"Does she ever stop?" Tigra asked idly, as she watched the young woman continue talking about sex and the performance levels that each member of the group likely had and with what type and positions they enjoyed.

"No." A red faced Buffy returned to the woman. "She has no filter when it comes to those sorts of things." She was feeling almost like Anya was trying to pimp them out to the heroes.

"At least you don't have her and her ideas stuck in your head." Dazzler grumbled back to the pair. "Just don't get her started on torturing unfaithful men. I think even Mojo would be impressed with some of her ideas."

"Its worse than listening to a drunk Wolverine." Kitty decided, getting nods from all of the ones that had spent any time around the feral mutant.

"And I thought Spider-Man's chatter was bad." Iron Fist muttered.

Spike merely chuckled as he listened to the group get all squeamish over the things that the former Vengeance Demon was talking about. He let out a cloud of smoke as he looked the two groups over. He had heard much worse in his unlife. Besides, its not like she was stripping down right in front of them right now anyways. And it's not like he wouldn't have said no to a few rolls with some of these fine ladies either he mused.

It was at that time they saw the ground before them start to shake and Glory rocketed out and landed in front of them. "Thank god." Several of the group muttered in relief, as they rushed forward to continue the fight. Anything was better than listening to Anya go on about them and sex.

Captain America and Xander started shouting out orders to all of the other heroes as they got near her.

"Wasp blind her"-

-"Tara go big and get ready."-

-"Iron Fist, you and Spike come at her from behind."-

-"Shadowcat Dawn above and below."-

-"Siryn blast her ears off."-

-"Willow cause her blood to boil."-

-"Dazzler Anya give us support fire."-

-"Buffy come at her from the front."-

-"Tigra work,with her."-

The two shield bearers finished barking out orders, and watched as the two groups moved to follow the commands that they had been given. "I guess since we seem to be planning the same thing, I know where to go." Xander noted, as he moved off to the side while Steve did the same in the opposite direction.

The group worked like a well oiled machine. Shadowcat dropped from above and pulled Glory back about halfway into the ground. Against normal people such an attack could kill them, but because she was a Helllgod Glory had a resistance to being destroyed when her body phased back in amidst the rocks. It still hurt her, but she was tougher than most being were and could survive it.*

The mutant released her hold and Glory was suddenly still and was hit with the destructive punches of four different people. Spike, Iron Fist, Tigra, and Buffy all punched her as hard as they could. The combined power of the blows would have killed something like Adam or torn through a building. For Glory though, it just dazed her. The group leaped back and Tara brought down one of the steel girders from the tower down on her head. Now visibly bleeding Glory struggled to get out of the ground when suddenly two shields slammed into either side of her head as the two shield, bearers slammed the shields into the side of her head. While that was going on Siryn was attacking her ear drums, Willow was effecting her blood and Anya and Dazzler were shooting at her.

Glory finally managed to break free. The Hellgoddess was panting from all of the work that it had taken. She really needed some brains. Hell she would take the brains of some of her pathetic little minions right now as long as it meant that she could recharge her strength to the levels it had been before. All she had wanted was her Key so that she could go home. She didn't understand why these annoyances wouldn't let her do that. So what if there was a chance that these creatures would likely die from the opening of the portal. Its not like they really mattered in the grand scheme of things. As she broke free the entire area around them was pelted with the rocks that had been around her. Moving at her super speed she attacked the giantess first. Winding up she connected her fist to the ankle of the girl causing her to cry out as the bone snapped. While the others were turning to look towards the fallen girl, she slammed into the ones that were firing lasers beams at her. The two blondes fell to the ground with a multitude of injuries. She turned to focus on the two redheads, but the pair merely changed their frequencies or whatever and she suddenly found herself lifted up off the ground and toss into the side of the tower. The makeshift building shuddered as she took out one of the weak supports and it came tumbling down on top of her.

"Alright, we've hit her with a wrecking ball, a cave, some fifty tons worth of destructive power, and a building. What else do we have to throw at her?" Xander questioned wearily, as he watched the pile begin to shake before Glory pushed her way out of the messy remains that was the tower/alter. He noticed that it seemed that Glory was looking a bit put out and that her hair and makeup were no longer in pristine condition. He really hoped that they had managed to do more damage to her than that. He watched the wobbly way she made her way towards them. and realized that at the very least that she was punch drunk from all of the damage that she had taken.

"Hey Hellbitch!" Buffy growled, as she picked up a broken pipe and slammed it into her. "We're not done yet." Buffy then proceeded to punch and slash at the Hellgod who could do nothing but absorb the damage. "I think that I'm going to make an object lesson out of you as to what happens to people that think its a good idea to mess with my family."

Glory finally managed to get her hands on the Slayer and held her by the throat only for the two blue clad girls to rush her and phase the blonde out of her hands. She heard a muttering and a lighting bolt hit her and while she was surrounded by all the metal it caught her in a cross fire like effect.

Willow smirked as she looked at the damage that she had caused to the woman. True it had meant she had to stop screaming, but it looked like the spell had been worth it.

Glory tiredly fell to her knees she could feel the change coming and with all of these fighters around her there was nothing that she could do about it. Still, even if she couldn't get home she could kill them for all of the trouble that they had caused her. She thought, as she climbed back to her feet.

The group of heroes stared in surprise as they saw Glory get up once more. They had thought that they had finally hurt her enough for her to stay down. It seemed that she was far from done though. They all saw a determination in her eyes. If anything it looked like she was even more pissed off than she had been before.

"I think we've finally made her mad." Shadowcat pointed out to the others with a mischievous grin on her face.

"To bad so sad." Dazzler returned to him.

"Yeah and how do you think that we're going to deal with a pissed off Hellgoddess love?" Spike asked the mutant. "It's not like we can call in a missile strike on her or anything." He pointed out to them.

"We do what we always do we keep going." Captain America returned to him confidently.

"Yeah, that's easier to swallow when there's a bunch of other heroes you can call on for emergency. I somehow doubt that Spider-Man is going to be swinging by or the fantasticar flying by anytime soon though." A somewhat panicky Xander pointed out to them.

"That's the fun part about fighting a shadow war though Xand." Buffy told her friend, as she eyed Glory carefully. "Besides if she's getting tired, that means she might change back soon." She told him with a hopeful look on her face. "Now let's go and bag us a Hellgoddess. Who knows, maybe if she's out of power it means she can't do anything like open a portal." She noted to them hopefully.

"I'm with her on this one." Dawn told her old crush as she followed after her sister. The others nodded as they got ready to try again. Some of them had broken bones while others were battered and beaten in ways that none of them wanted to talk about and that didn't even include how tired they all were.

The two Shadowcat's were up first, and charged right at her. They stopped as they got in front of her, and plunged their hands into her body.

"What are you doing?" Glory demanded of them even as she tried to grab the pair or wave them out of the way.

Shadowcat smirked at the woman in defiance. -"Its simple really, one of us is grabbing your heart, while the other one of us is grabbing your lungs."-

-"On a normal person we would only have to do one or the other, but I think you understand why we thought it better to do both with you."- Dawn picked up for the other girl.

Shadowcat looked rather pleased with herself as she took over the talk. -"After all, your so great and wonderful we're sure that you can figure it out."-

-"Even with bad hair like that."- The pair finished off together as they squeezed even tighter.

"I don't know, I think she even gives blondes a bad reputation for smarts." Buffy returned, as she punched Glory as hard as she could. The two girl tightened their holds on the organs even as Glory went stumbling back. "Come on," Buffy offered the figure, "lets play a game of chase." She beckoning the woman after her. "Unless your slowing down that is?" She questioned, as she leaped over Glory and a fence.

Gritting her teeth, Glory chased after the Slayer by pulling free from the grips of the mutants, knocked the fence aside, and followed the blonde into the parking lot.

"Any time." Buffy shouted, as Glory stomped towards her. Glory looked up just in time to see a cement container get blasted open and pour all over her.

Buffy and Tigra each appeared at her sides and grabbed one of her shoulders and forced her down into one of the ditches that they poured cement into. The three were covered in the quick dry cement, though Glory was covered in the most while the two cat girls mainly had it on their arms.

"Good job." Captain America complimented, as he stepped out of the truck.

"Just glad that they had this stuff left over from their little crazy project." Tigra returned to him while flashing a smile.

"Think this will really hold her?" Buffy asked curiously as she rose to her feet and began running water over her arms.

"According to Spider-Man, it worked on the Juggernaut." Iron Fist returned to her with a shrug of his shoulders. "If nothing else, it might slow her down." The others nodded their acceptance of that. Since all any of them could do was slow her down. They all watched as Glory shifted before their eyes and became a decidedly male like figure.

"Okay this is new." Buffy admitted as she looked at their captive.

"The Council did tell us that their was a human host." Tara reminded her. "I'm guessing that this is the body that she was placed in."

"Who is he?" Anya asked curiously as she raised a glowing hand towards the man. "I want him to bleed and pay me money for all the trouble that he's caused me and cost me."

Dawn reached over and wiped the cement out of their captives face. "Its Ben!" She gasped out in surprise.

"Ben, as in cute hospital Ben?" Buffy asked as she finally finished cleaning up and turned around to see the somewhat familiar features of the orderly. "Okay that's a surprise." She admitted to the others.

"Don't see how it is, you've got a habit of falling for the ones that want to kill ya or are connected to the ones that want to kill ya." Spike returned to her.

"Besides Angel name one." Buffy argued.

"Besides the Poofter, there was the brat that tried to lock you and the rest of them in that bomb shelter, Riley, and there was some rumors about you and the Mayors slayer Faith." Spike counted off rather smugly, while Buffy suddenly found the ground very interesting.

"As uninteresting as Buffy's past snuggle partners are." Anya cut in. "I mean they would only be interesting if they were orgasam partners, which only Angel and Riley were. No matter how much sexual tension there might have been between Buffy and Faith."

"I'm not sure whether to be insulted or not." Buffy admitted.

"With Anya, you never know." Willow told him before slapping Xander on the back of the head.

"Hey what was that for?" The carpenter complained.

"For imaging Buffy and Faith together." The redhead returned matter of factly.

"What, I can't imagine some girl on girl action now?" He asked in disbelief. "I object."

"You can't fantasize with Faith is all." Willow explained. "The way of Faith equals badness." She told him sagely.

Xander opened his mouth, but stopped. "Good point." He conceded. "I can still fantasize Buffy in that raincoat though right? And Buffy doesn't get a vote in this one." He hurried out before the blonde could object.

Willow nodded her head. "Yes, you get Buffy in the raincoat, and Buffy gets you in a speedo." She declared officially.

"So what do we do with him or her or is it them?" Dawn asked rather loudly.

The group turned to look at the others suddenly remembering that they had an audience. The heroes were for the most part trying to look impassive. Dawn looked both interested and sickened at the same time and Giles was working very hard on getting the utmost shine from his glasses.

"I approve of your choices." Anya told the pair proudly. "As long as you remember that he's mine." She added in, as she grabbed Xander by one of his arms.

Buffy cocked her head to the side. "Do you call them an It or is there some sort of politically acceptable way of referring to someone that is like that?" She mused out loud to the others.

"We could go with She-Male." Tigra suggested to her. "While its not the best description, it may be the only one that you need. Besides, its obvious Glory wears the pants in whatever relationship they have."

"I suppose, but back to the main question, what do we do with them? I mean its not like we have any prisons that will hold a superhuman." Willow pointed out to the others. "We'll need something that will hold her and all of her crazy though."

"We do what we do with everything that tries to destroy the world." Giles returned determinedly.

Giles are you sure about this?" Buffy questioned him worriedly.

"Indeed I am." Giles returned to the Slayer. "You might not want to watch this." He warned the heroes. "It's the way this world works though."

"What if we took them with us?" Captain America questioned hopefully, as he tried to think of a way to save the life of both of the figures. "She's beaten we've won." He tried to reason.

"We don't know what would happen if we were to send her between dimensions though. It could start this thing up all over again." Willow pointed out to the man. "Much as I'm not a fan of the final choice option and all, I don't see much choice here you know?"

"We're right Captain, and you know it." Giles cut in over whatever else the man might say. "Besides, while we stopped her this time what is there to say that she won't try again as we have no idea how long the alignment or whatever will hold true for using the Key. There is also the fact that you and your comrades can not stay here just to guard one person either." He pointed out. "I understand, and even applaud that you prefer not to kill, but in this case I'm afraid that there isn't much choice. We don't have the advantages that the people of your world have. The only place we have close to holding her is on the other side of the planet in the Deeper Well, and without the right type of coffin and spells, it wouldn't matter. Such secrets are not ones that we possess either I might add." He informed the man. "No, let us do what we have to do. We may not all be happy about it, but it'll keep this world and many others working." He informed the man. Captain America looked conflicted and looked the group over for a moment, but he did step to the side. "Thank you Captain." The Watcher told him with relief. He really didn't want a fight between the two groups to happen over their different philosophies in battle. "Spike, I believe that you just might have some payback that you want here." He suggested to the vampire.

"Right you are Ripper." Spike returned, as he moved forward.

"Please don't do this." Ben pleaded with the vampire. "I didn't have a choice." He explained to him.

Spike snorted at that. He had heard these sorts of stories a hundred times before. For a moment he thought of all of the things that the Hellgoddess had done to him when she questioned him. He also thought of the fact that she had nearly taken the Slayer and tried to sacrifice the Nibblet. As a creature that was dedicated to fighting he could accept the reasoning behind trying to kill the Slayer. He had done that enough times, but to go after the Little Bit was unforgivable in his eyes. He gathered all of his energy into his fist and brought it down, ignoring the somewhat squeamish looks that the others were giving him. Sometimes it took a monster to deal with a monster. He mused to himself, as he watched his chi enhanced fist slammed through the head of the Hell-Bitch. He had been wanting to do that for such a long time. He also noticed that neither Glenda, Red, the Slayer, Nibblet, bug girl, or the Star-Spangled Banner were watching as he did it. It also raised his respect somewhat for the ones that did.

"Its a shame that had to be done." Iron Fist returned solemnly. "Perhaps in death, the host and the goddess will find some measure of peace."

"Or maybe there's some justice, and their both on a one way ticket to hell." Spike returned to him.

Iron Fist nodded his head in agreement with that view.

"So what now?" Dawn questioned curiously.

"Now we need to head back to our world." Captain America returned stiffly.

"He's right." Wasp returned. "The crisis is over, and we need to head back. There's no telling what might be happening to the city while we're here. Though personally I'm thinking treating myself to a full makeover might be a good idea." The Sunnydale women looked jealously at the Wasp at that announcement.

"Not to mention that we need to let everyone know that the multi verse isn't about to end." Shadowcat pointed out dryly. "Brian will be so happy to hear that a part of his kingdom isn't about to implode on itself."

"So, how will you be returning?" Giles asked curiously.

"The same way we got here." Tigra explained to him. "I'm hoping that your magic users can help us to open a portal." She admitted, looking at the witches.

"Uh yeah sure." Tara agreed with the rather simple request. "It would be easier to do if we were to do it near the top of the tower since that's where we came from."

"Speaking of, how did you manage to get here?" Giles asked curiously. "As I understand it, none of you are overly strong in magical theories or practice and would have been hard pressed to track someone magically in your own world much less into another world."

"Dr. Strange helped us out." Captain America informed him.

"Is that the powerful magic user you told us about?" Giles asked Xander.

"One of them." Xander admitted. "Though I think DC might have a better selection of magic users. I mean their go to person is usually Dr. Strange, and depending on if the writers want to make her more magic than mutant Scarlet Witch. Meanwhile DC has Fate, Zatanna, Jason Blood, Wonder Woman understands the theory, and a few others that either practice or know about it." The young man ticked off.

"Er yes." A rather confused Giles answered hoping that he would never need to know just who these colorful names belonged to. He would be very happy when he could go back to using his ancient texts and books to figure something out. Not the drivel that Xander liked to read for fun. Even if it had saved their lives this time.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" A voice asked angrily. The group turned around to see the battered figure of the demon Doc. "It was all planned out, I was to go with her and rise as the High Priest for Glory. I would have become all powerful thanks to her." The demon ranted at the two groups angrily. "I was going to be something more than some store clerk for demons."

"As the result of sacrificing my sister." Buffy returned to him angrily while crossing her arms. "Then there's all the others who would have died when the portal opened and ripped a hole through the multi-verse."

"Collateral." Doc returned to her indifferently. Seemingly unconcerned that he was making her even angrier than she already was. "I'm going to make you pay for doing this to me. You will all suffer for what you have cost me." The demon declared as he brandished his knife at them.

The demon gagged and fell over while Dawn removed her hand from his chest. "What, it had to be done." She told the others. None of the others wanted to argue that particular point with a girl that had nearly been sacrificed.

The group joined hands and floated up into the air to around where the witches told them to and they opened a portal that would theoretically lead back to the world that the heroes were all from.

"Well done heroes." A voice told them, as a ghostly figure of man with a red cape appeared before them.

"Astral projection?" Giles asked curiously as he looked the figure over.

"Indeed Rupert Giles." The Sorcerer Supreme returned to the Watcher. "I am pleased to see that my help was not needed in this matter." He noted to the group.

"Mission accomplished." Cap returned to him.

Strange nodded as he looked the group over for a moment, his eyes pausing on Dawn with undisguised interest. "Be careful young one, you have a most powerful and dangerous essence within you. The Key is one of the primordial beings of the multi-verse. Like the Phoenix Force, it can do great good or great evil." He warned the girl knowingly.

Dawn swallowed nervously, but nodded her understanding.

"I guess you'll want this back now." Xander noted, as he offered the shield he had been using.

"Keep it, I think that its in good hands." Cap returned to the young man.

Xander smiled his thanks.

"Now go and give your man lots of sex when you get back." Anya advised Dazzler.

The mutant rock star shook her at the other woman. "You'll never change will you?" She asked with an amused smile.

"Why would I?" Anya asked her obliviously.

The Scoobies watched as each of the superheroes entered through the portal and vanished back to their own reality.

"Okay I say we all go home and figure what we're gonna do tomorrow." Buffy decided. The others nodded their heads in agreement as they began making their way back home.

Giles sighed as he watched the group. If the powers that they had magically copied or whatever stayed he wondered how it would effect the balance of the world. It was bad enough when there was just a slayer with so many heroes now acting as guardian there was no telling what their next challenge might be.

* * *

><p>And we are finally and officially done with this one. No sequels. Was a fun ride with this one, but I am glad that its finally over.<p>

*Thor has survived Shadowcat phasing him into the streets so why not Glory?

(Strangely enough I think the episode with the Scoobies making a run for it and fighting the knights is the one Buffy episode that I've never seen.


End file.
